A message from Northern Action Group (NAG):

Background to the Survey: Rodney Subdivision Changes for the next Elections Changes to the Rodney Local Board’s subdivision boundaries are again up for grabs in the representation review AC has to conduct next year for the 2025 local elections.

The proposal for change was raised by Councillor Sayers and NAG at the last opportunity (Nov 2020) for AC to conduct a review. AC was not intending to conduct a review then, for it was only required to do so next in 2024 but Councillor Sayers presented a Motion to the Governing Body to review the Rodney subdivision boundaries for the 2022 elections.

The motion was supported by Local MPs, Chris Penk and Marja Lubeck, and a comprehensive background paper provided by NAG.

The Background paper is on our website here: http://www.nag.org.nz/ NAG%20subdivision%20proposal%20document.pdf

The boundary change was deferred by the Governing Body (GB) for consideration in the current review. The GB considered it would have been expensive for AC to conduct the consultation as a one-off (no other changes were being proposed) and it could potentially have opened up AC to a complete review.

The proposal was covered at the time by our Local Matters paper here https:// www.localmatters.co.nz/news/call-for-rodney-board-subdivision-boundary-change/

The election last year (2022) was conducted using the subdivision boundaries as shown in the left-side diagram above.

Currently Rodney has 4 subdivisions and 9 Local Board members (the number of members will not change). The last determination (2019 determination (based on 2017 population estimates)) shows:

NAG wants the public to be aware of the proposal at this stage, so that ratepayers have plenty of time to think about it.

A wide variety of opinions about the best structure for Rodney are expected in the public consultation process next year.

But if AC concludes that the Rodney community is generally supportive, the proposed new boundaries will likely become the basic proposal, so it is important to socialise the proposal at this time. The Rodney Local board (RLB) is also being briefed as they will be affected by the proposal if any of them intend to stand again. The RLB will be asked for its view in the review process.

Otherwise, the status quo current boundary arrangements will be expected to form the basis for the AC proposal, with the new boundaries possibly included as an alternative. No change in the number of local board members (9) is proposed.

Minor changes, either to the status quo boundaries or the new proposal, are expected because of updated population numbers.

NAG is conducting an early poll to gauge ratepayer interest. You most likely have linked here from that poll. If you have, please go back to complete the survey, but if not,

Cast your vote at : https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HH65GJF

Wellsford is outside the 10% variation allowed, but the boundaries were approved by the Local Government Commission.

Boundary Change Proposal

The proposal provides a grouping based on the rural/urban classification determined by StatsNZ, rather than the traditional grouping around major population centres, which biases representation in favour of urban voters.

The proposed changes more fairly reflect representation of the half of Rodney’s population which is rural, pays half the rates, and gets little in the provision of services from AC other than roads and drainage. Preliminary work by AC is being done now that will result in a proposal to be put out for consultation next year. The proposal, based on 2022 StatsNZ estimates of population would be (as in the above right-side diagram):