The change will determine who Ashburton residents can vote for in the regional council elections.
Councillors were presented with two options at its recent regional council meeting.
One was to keep the status quo with Ashburton part of a Mid Canterbury constituency with the Selwyn district, having two councillors.
The other option would move Ashburton to the South Canterbury constituency, with two councillors across the five districts, and leave Selwyn district as a constituency on its own, which councillors were advised provided better alignments around population ratios and legislative requirements.
This second option will go out for consultation as the preferred proposal, after being selected by a narrow 9-7 vote.
The four councillors from the two impacted constituencies, South Canterbury and Mid Canterbury, all voted against it.
The supporters were six of the eight Christchurch councillors, the two Ngai Tahu representatives and North Canterbury’s Grant Edge.
Ngai Tahu councillor Nuk Korako initially indicated his support for the status quo, but when it came time to vote, he supported the change after a long pause.
Mr Edge said Selwyn District Council’s support of the change was among the reasons for his vote.
But South Canterbury councillor Nick Ward said the Ashburton District Council and South Canterbury councils did not support the change.
Cr Ian Mackenzie called for councillors to think about the constituencies in terms of scale, not just population.
He also noted there was no compelling difference since the last review.
Cr Peter Scott reminded councillors he could not "ride around [his] constituency" on his bike like some could.
The matter will now be in the hands of the public, as ECan’s initial representation proposal goes out for public consultation this month.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
— Johnathon Leask, local democracy reporter
