Central Otago\u2019s\u00a0council wants to join forces with Queenstown and Clutha as part of the national shake-up of local government.<\/p>\n
Councillors voted in favour of the new direction at\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s meeting\u00a0with only one vote against.<\/p>\n
The proposal still needs\u00a0agreement from at least one of the Clutha and Queenstown Lakes District Councils to go ahead.<\/p>\n
The Clutha District Council (CDC)\u00a0will consider their position on signing a joint letter of intent tomorrow and Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC)\u00a0on Monday.<\/p>\n
Should the support be secured, Central Otago Mayor Tamah Alley has been authorised to sign and submit the proposal by the government\u2019s deadline on August 9.<\/p>\n
If neither council favours the proposal from\u00a0the CODC, Ms Alley has been authorised to instead sign a\u00a0joint letter of intent with other Otago mayors, as previously signalled, the CODC said in its release.<\/p>\n
The proposed unitary authority would bring together the full areas of the three councils.\u00a0It would also include\u00a0an option\u00a0include the Waihemo Ward of Waitaki District and rural parts of Dunedin City, including Middlemarch and the Taieri catchment, should they wish to join.<\/p>\n
The proposal would look to\u00a0ensure local voices aren\u2019t lost in a bigger structure. Community councils with rating powers would be\u00a0the main way of keeping decisions close to the communities they affect, along with the possibility of tailored legislative arrangements specific to how this council would work.<\/p>\n
It would ensure Central Otago has say in shaping any future structure changes, rather than waiting for the government to decide, the release said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said all along that this is a fast-moving process, and my own position has shifted more than once as new information has come to light,\u201d Ms Alley\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur commitment to Central Otago\u2019s identity, affordability and strong local voice has never changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has evolved is our understanding of the best way to achieve those outcomes within the options and timeframe the government has set.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter carefully considering the evidence, we believe this approach provides the strongest pathway to protect what matters most to our communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood leadership means being willing to adapt when new information points to a better outcome, while staying true to the values and priorities that underpin our decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any resulting changes to local government structure would still go through full public consultation before anything is confirmed. \u2014\u00a0Allied Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Otago\u2019s\u00a0council wants to join forces with Queenstown and Clutha as part of the national shake-up of local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-549590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}