This series will profile the people who make Christchurch tick, give a voice to the region’s diverse communities and debate how the city can best accommodate its growing number of residents while examining the issues facing the city. Video / NZ Herald
Opinion
OPINION:
Selwyn is already super without talk of a super city. Last year more New Zealanders moved to Selwyn than to any other city or district in Aotearoa. Clearly there are some great things going on here that more and more people want to be involved in.
Boundaries can often be looked at as lines that divide, but they should also be the places we come together. My approach is to put people and communities as our focus rather than abstract demarcations of historical competition or indifference. I totally accept that our proximity to Christchurch, and all that the city offers, is one of the natural advantages of our district and a key reason families and businesses are choosing Selwyn. Our residents also enjoy the benefits of open rural spaces and the awesome opportunities our enabling Council provides. Throwing that up in the air just to land a super city title would be a loss for the district and our neighbours.
The backdrop to this discussion is that the Government has set out on one of the most ambitious change agendas in New Zealand's modern history. These reviews are asking fundamental questions about how our communities grow sustainably, how communities make decisions, and how we manage our resources. On top of Three Waters and the reviews into the Resource Management Act and the Future for Local Government, there is also Health NZ and the ongoing changes for tertiary education.
Each of these reviews is applying their thinking within a series of overlapping boundaries that don't match. For example, police, health, and education boundaries are all different across Canterbury. Sitting underneath, and here before all that, are our mana whenua rohe and Ngāi Tahu takiwa. Some consistency in boundaries, particularly from Government, would help relationship building, increase strategic thinking and support better accountability to communities.
New Springs ward reserve on track for first stage opening this year on Birchs Road. Photo / Supplied
When thinking about the right size to do things I believe we could be both bigger and smaller. New Zealand is too small of a country to have 78 different councils of various sizes all having separate relationships with multiple Government departments each dealing with different boundaries and all spending public money. On the other hand, many of our current councils are too big to be proactive or to deliver for our varied and nuanced local communities.
On the big stuff, we need to get together and work as one, if we can do that we don't need to be a super city. In some cases, a single place of decision-making seems to make sense. Larger regional spatial plans, larger infrastructure entities, and getting together on transport are all areas where bigger has advantages. Let's do this well so that we can plan for our Greater Christchurch city population at two million.
Across Greater Christchurch, our councils and Ngāi Tahu are working well together to plan urban growth and future transport solutions. However, the back and forth between parties and duplication of effort within councils could be improved. An example could be the formation of a Greater Christchurch Transport and Planning Agency with more grunt and easier partnership potential for government investment.
On the other hand, being smaller also needs more focus. Neighbourhood centres and local project decisions need to be made closer to the action. The place-making and sense of ownership of locations are best held by those who live there and our current council size is too big to allow that to happen well.
Although councils are elected by the community, the choice of candidates at an election does not usually reflect the citizen make-up of an area.
As an example, Selwyn's average age is 35, yet I'm the youngest elected member on our council at age 40. We need to find ways so that younger voices are not filtered through parents or grandparents on councils. Citizen Assemblies randomly selected as a representative sample from our community is one way of giving away power to allow a wider range of voices to be heard in decisions. I think Councils are elected to ensure good decisions are made but too often that gets confused with councils thinking we need to make all the decisions.
These are only a couple of ideas and I'm sure our newly elected councils will have more to say on the matter. But let's move past discussion and get on with doing things both bigger and smaller. Our environment can't wait, healing Te Tiriti relationships can't wait, and supporting local can't wait.
Let's get past the distraction of super city talk and just do the things that bring life and opportunity to our people.
• Sam Broughton is the Mayor of Selwyn District Council.
