Murray sees chance to strike balance

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 9

Murray sees chance to strike balance

By

ANABRIGHT HAY

A unique opportunity to strike the best balance between community interests and administrative structures exists in local government reorganisation, Mrs Margaret Murray said yesterday. The chairman of the Waimairi District Council and Canterbury United Council and Christchurch City mayoral candidate addressed members of the Victoria League in Christchurch yesterday. After outlining the background to the reorganisation process, Mrs Murray said reorganisation offered the opportunity to introduce a system which reflected the size of communities and the services required by them. A balance was required be-

tween the needs of the community and the needs of central administration. While many believed there was a need for some reform of local government the form it should take was the question, Mrs Murray said. Short of civil disobedience nothing could be done to stop amalgamations proposed in the Local Government Commission’s final draft scheme, she said. It was important for council staff to feel close to the communities they served and not to be turned into petty bureaucrats.

Project teams were working on many aspects of community services such as rubbish, water and parks and “we are about to see all sorts of

views come back to transitional committees,” she said. The challenge of revitalising city industrial areas, reconciling development with preservation, a two-pronged strategy on employment creation schemes and the economic initiatives taken by the Canterbury United Council were described by Mrs Murray. Work on the formation of a 24-candidate team to stand with her in the forthcoming elections was more than half-way through, she said. “It’s an apolitical team.”

People were concerned about where the city was going and it was going to be quite a challenge to sort out who was representing them, she said.