Cities, districts ‘building blocks’ of reform

Press, 29 September 1988, Page 4

Cities, districts ‘building blocks’ of reform

By

KAY FORRESTER

Canterbury was given one pointer yesterday, and will get another tomorrow, on the direction of local government reform.

Counties, boroughs and ad hoc authorities will disappear in favour of cities and districts as the basic building blocks of New Zealand’s new local government. All authorities will elect a mayor at large and all regional authorities will have a rural committee to protect the interests of the rural community. The first indicative proposals for reform were announced by the Local Government Commission in Auckland yesterday. They were for the Auckland and Northland regions. Tomorrow the commission’s chairman, Mr Brian Elwood, goes to Dunedin to announce the Otago region proposal. That proposal has a special significance for Canterbury as Otago’s northern boundary is likely to be Canterbury’s southern boundary also. The Canterbury announcement is set for October 4. In his scene-setting address yesterday Mr Elwood said most local bodies would be district councils, representing a combination of rural and urban interests. Cities would be predominantly urban, representing urban centres. Both would feature wards and ward committees. One type of ward

committee would operate in isolated or geographically distinct communities of interest and have wide powers over functions assigned by the parent authority. The other would have a monitoring role in urban areas for streetworks, parks, recreation, traffic management and community activities. Wards would be for electoral purposes, service delivery, and citizen involvement. All councils would elect a mayor or council leader at large giving all authorities the same status and foundation, Mr Elwood said. “To divide town from country in the structures of local government

creates a division wmcn is not only unnecessary but clouds the objective and its achievement.” Regional government would have a pivotal role in the management of natural resources but be rarely involved with service delivery, Mr Elwood said. Delivery would rest mainly with the district territorial council system. The services regional government was required to do, could be contracted to district councils or the private sector or be provided by corporatising the activity. The commission wanted a combined “one stop local government service centre” system. That would allow for decentralisation and put services where the users were, Mr Elwood said. Mr Elwood signalled the end of single purpose authorities. “It is neither efficient nor effective to establish an independent local authority with an independent structure and administration to handle a single function which, in the final analysis, requires policy co-ordination on a wider scale.” Councils will have until November 10 to make further submissions on draft final schemes which will be issued by the end of the year.