Council will cover wide area

Press, 19 April 1979, Page 3

Council will cover wide area

The Canterbury region covered by the United Council stretches from the sea to the Southern Alps and from the Rakaia River to the Conway River, says Oliver Riddell, Wellington reporter of “The Press.”

A provisional scheme was promulgated by the Local Government Commission during July, 1977, for public comment and objection. This has led to the final scheme. There is no indication yet when an Order-in-Council or other instrument will give effect to the final scheme. Nor is there any indication how much the United Council will cost. Its members will be appointed by the constituent local authorities, who will then levy their constituents for income on a population basis once it has been estimated how much money is needed.

Planning will be the signiificant acitivty of tne United Council — the revised Town and Country Planning Act 1977, specifies that regional as well as local and national planning is needed for the legislation to work properly. The Canterbury Regional Planning Authority will have to transfer all its planning tasks within six months of the United Council’s establishment. The members of the United Council must be appointed not later than one month after the date of the constitution of the united region. Those members will come into office at the first meeting of the council, which must be not more than two months later. Canterbury region is now one of eight united councils throughout New Zealand, but it is the only one of the eight which could have had a regional council — like Auckland — if it had wanted it.

Nelson, Marlborough, Westland, Taranaki, and Wairarapa all have working

United Councils, while Wanganui and Southland are at the same stage as Canterbury. Auckland has a regional council, and the difference is significant. A regional council is elected by the public at large, while a united council is elected by its constituent territorial local authorities. A regional council can rate the public directly, while a united council levies its constituents.

Under legislation passed in 1977 — the Local Government Amendment Act (No. 3) — the Local Government Commission is obliged to establish a regional council in any region which has a population of not less than 325,000 and includes one or more cities, unless a specified proportion of constituent authorities ask for a united council.

When this legislation was passed the provisional scheme for the Canterbury region had already been published. This provided for a united council, and the constituent authorities preferred that.

With 26 members, the Canterbury United Council seems abnormally large, and even unwieldy. This is because the Local Government Commission wanted the composition and structure to reflect as much as possible the views of the local authorities concerned.

Having a united council means that the constituent authorities retain control of planning and civil defence directly. A regional council would have been' directly answerable only to the public.

The final scheme has been modified a little after objections to the. provisional scheme were heard at Christchurch on February 14.