Selwyn_Times: May 01, 2024

Selwyn Times Wednesday May 1 2024
16
LETTERS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Call for Malvern Community Board
to stay, have more responsibility
IF IN THE very near future
Malvern and Ellesmere Wards
are merged, the geographical
scope will be from the
mountains to the sea (Arthur’s
Pass to Southbridge) – a travel
distance of just under 150km.
The Selwyn District’s ward
structural system is logically
based on population, not geographical
size. However, if Malvern
was to lose our community
board as a direct communication
line to the council, we would be
reliant on councillor/s to represent
the varied economic, cultural,
social and infrastructure
needs across a 150km region.
When Tim Harris (council
executive director enabling
services) talks about bureaucracy
as a negative when it comes to
the Malvern Community Board,
he negates the basis of it providing
a reasonable pathway to
accomplish community goals, a
grass-roots approach where the
voices of the people are central to
any sound decision-making.
Yes, Tim is right the community
board must deliver value to
ratepayers to justify its costs but
let’s get behind our board and
hold them to a higher standard
than what the executive board
representative believes they are
capable of. After all, they are ‘of
We want to hear your views
on the issues affecting life
in Selwyn
Send emails to:
barry@starmedia.kiwi
AT RISK: The Malvern Ward, which includes Darfield, could
lose its community board at the next election.
the people, for the people, by the
people’ and that is you and me.
Lastly, for the cost of four cups
of coffee a year we have a representative
voice through the Malvern
Community Board. Let’s
fight to keep this influence and
even more so ask the executive
board to entrust our community
board with further delegated
responsibilities to enact the voice
of the people they serve.
- Erin Brodie-Van Der Zwet,
Darfield
We want Selwyn District
Council to retain the Malvern
Community Board.
The likely amalgamation of
wards makes the community
board more necessary, not less.
The council is a big operation
dealing with complex issues and
competing demands. We expect
Letters may be edited or rejected at Star Media’s
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provided.
Please use your real name, not a nickname, alias, pen
name or abbreviation.
our councillors to be well informed
when they decide how to
spend our rates. We also expect
them to keep in touch with the
residents of their wards, be available
to everyone and attend our
residents’ meetings when they
can. A good community board
can deal with the most local
issues and allow the councillors
to focus on the best decisions for
the whole district.
Amalgamating the wards will
save the council some money.
Abolishing the Malvern Community
Board would reduce
our rates by just $24. Why not
give the community board more
responsibilities and increase
its territory so that it provides
an expanded service to more
Selwyn residents?’
- Bex Ridgen, Greendale
residents’ committee chair
Rates
The Selwyn District Council
needs a bit of belt tightening and
stop treating the ratepayers as a
endless money box.
Right out of the silly ideas
department:
• Blocking off Perrymans Rd
and sealing it. There are lots of
people who would like a sealed
extension of their road.
• Spending millions of dollars
destroying the angle parking at
the Lincoln shopping area on
Gerald St.
The council needs to stop employing
more and more staff, and
make the hand fit the glove. If it
Malvern Community
Board member Calvin
Payne responds on
behalf of the board
to the risk if it is
disestablished at the
next local elections as
part of the council’s
representation review
Our view is community
boards are necessary in large,
sparsely populated rural areas
to ensure local representation
and elected representatives can
physically cover the geographical
area required.
We are currently limited by
population numbers to the number
of councillors for each ward.
It would seem difficult for one
councillor to be able to cover the
approximately 5000 sq kms of
the Malvern Ward detailed in
one of the options in the consultation.
In this or the three councillor
option combining with
Ellesmere, we believe the only
option to maintain functional
and local representation would
be to maintain a community
board in some form.
In rural areas, we believe
face to face contact is essential.
Internet is unreliable, emails
can be misinterpreted and by
means cutting back services and
events, do so.
- Murray Hely, Lincoln
Whilst I am less than thrilled
at the prospect of paying higher
rates, I have to accept this is at
least in part due to New Zealand
massively under funding its
infrastructure over the last few
decades.
According to some estimates,
we need to spend an extra $120-
180 billion over the next 30 years
on Three Waters infrastructure
alone. In some areas of the country,
it is expected a 100 per cent
rates increase is required to cover
these costs.
having elected members on the
ground, social gatherings can
bind communities and support
mental health.
As a comparison from historical
data the ward sizes are
about: Rolleston 300 sq kms,
Ellesmere 900 sq kms. Springs
300 sq kms, Malvern 5000 sq
kms. The Selwyn District is
6500 sq kms.
This means that Malvern is
approximately 77 per cent of the
SDC area. How many elected
representatives do you deserve?
The cost of the Malvern Community
Board (five members) is
currently a targeted rate of $24 a
year per ratepayer.
This is reduced in the Long
Term Plan consultation document
to $19, probably because of
the increase in population in the
current Malvern Ward.
The current $24 can be broken
down as follows: GST $3.12,
council support $12.72, member
remuneration $7.20, operating
costs $0.96.
The overall cost of the community
board is stated as
$189,600. This figure can also be
broken down as follows: Council
support $101,322 (53 per cent),
member remuneration $57,416
(30 per cent), GST $24,731 (13
per cent), operating costs $6132
(4 per cent).
As local councils are responsible
for funding Three Waters and
their primary source of income is
through rates, their only option is
to increase these accordingly.
What’s sorely needed is for
the money collected by central
government (PAYE, GST) to be
more evenly distributed to the
regions to fund these infrastructure
upgrades, rather than being
concentrated in Wellington.
New Zealand is one of the
most centralised countries in the
world, and is the only one mandating
its 67 local councils fund
critical infrastructure through
the collection of rates.
- David Baumbach, Lincoln
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