Dunedin should have no reduction in representation at the Otago Regional Council and there is a good case for making the constituency larger, city councillors say.
The city has six representatives on the regional council, but would lose one under a proposal in which Dunstan would gain a representative because of population growth there.
The Dunedin City Council approved a submission yesterday that put up two alternative scenarios for consideration.
One would move Mosgiel-Taieri and Strath Taieri into the Dunedin ward.
The other would involve adding a councillor to the regional council’s total of 12, allowing Dunedin to keep its six.
"The addition of a member in the Dunstan constituency should not come at the expense of Dunedin residents," the submission said.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich described the existing exclusion of Mosgiel from Dunedin as an aberration.
He suggested the regional council’s alignment of Mosgiel with Clutha in the Molyneux ward was a historical anomaly.
He also suggested this might not have helped the Mosgiel area’s advocacy for better flood protection.
Cr David Benson-Pope had reservations about Mosgiel not being considered part of urban Dunedin and said the town had been used as an "electoral boundary pawn" for decades.
He was comfortable with the second option put up by the city council — pushing the regional council’s total number of councillors up to 13.
The city council said Mosgiel was "much more than a rural support centre".
"While part of the Mosgiel-Taieri area is rural, it is predominantly a large and increasingly urban population and is the area that has seen the biggest residential growth in Dunedin in recent years."
Mosgiel-Taieri did not have a strong community of interest with Balclutha, the other main centre in the Molyneux constituency, the city council submission said.
The city council acknowledged transferring Mosgiel-Taieri and Strath Taieri to the Dunedin constituency would probably reduce the Molyneux ward’s representation to one councillor.
"However, the size of the Molyneux constituency would also decrease."
The city council’s other suggestion of adding a councillor to the regional council could leave Molyneux unaffected and would not require significant boundary adjustments.
The council was "strongly of the view" the Dunedin ward should remain at six members.
