ORC Representation – Time to change

It was time that the Otago Regional Council representation acknowledged the Queenstown Lakes was one of the fastest growing districts in New Zealand, QLDC Mayor Vanessa van Uden said.

“Historically our regional council representation has been via two candidates from the Dunstan Region, an area that combines Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes. The current ORC Representation Review is a perfect opportunity for this to be addressed,” Mayor van Uden said.

“With all due respect to the current sitting members, neither of whom resides in the Lakes District, it’s time we had a bum on a seat around the regional council table,” she said.

QLDC ratepayers also pay rates to the ORC for environmental services including air, water and transport.

The QLDC submitted that the existing representation was neither effective nor fair.

“We propose the Dunstan constituency be split in two with the creation of a new constituency, the Wakatipu constituency,” Mayor van Uden said.

The equation was not rocket science, giving a Dunstan population of more than 30,500 two representatives and a Wakatipu population of 16,600, one representative.

“Even then this is a sub-optimal proposal because the numbers means Arrowtown needs to continue to be in the Dunstan ward together with Wanaka and CODC communities but it will be a vast improvement on fair representation and Arrowtowners will have more ready access with a Wakatipu Regional Council representative,” she said.

QLDC spoke to its submission today at the representation review hearing in Dunedin via teleconference.