The Waitaki Ratepayers & Residents Association was formed at a meeting in Oamaru last week.
Ray Henderson was elected as chairman for the association and a board of directors of eight people was selected.
Mr Henderson said the goal for the association was to make sure the council "controls the purse strings".
The meeting was full of people from all different age groups, he said.
"I was quite pleased to see the demographic of people that turned up there. There was some real young ones there.
"I think that will make it a very good group, because we will get diverse opinions from the different age groups."
At the meeting, the 52 attendees unanimously voted to ask the Waitaki District Council to livestream all workshops to the public, he said.
"The meetings are currently broadcast on [the council’s] YouTube channel but the workshops aren’t.
"We don’t know what we don’t know, because there is so much happening behind closed doors.
"We want them to be much more open."
The council conducted 68 workshops last year.
Another issue he highlighted was how the council spent its money.
"I like to say it’s our money.
"It’s money held on behalf of the whole town. So, that’s why I think we need to be pretty active in controlling what council is doing."
Focusing on what was necessary and unnecessary was key, he said.
"There’s lots of things you have to have and there’s things that are nice to have.
"And I think the council has extended themselves too far.
"They are heading towards things in the nice-to-have basket and they’re taking out loans to accomplish that."
An example Mr Henderson provided was the rising costs of the Waitaki Events Centre.
The association is a revival of the Waitaki Ratepayers & Concerned Citizens Association, which existed from 2005 to 2015 and lobbied on several issues, including the preservation of Forrester Heights from development.
