With huge issues emerging around water as a result of intensive farming on the Canterbury Plains ramping up and seemingly nothing being done at regional council level the government stepped in.
An urban-rural divide around the council table was seen to be part of the governance issue.
Six commissioners were appointed under chairwoman Dame Margaret Bazley and the regional council was commissioner-driven from 2010-16.
Completing a resource management plan for water in Canterbury was made an urgent priority in the terms of reference for the commissioners.
They were also required to improve relations with Canterbury’s 10 territorial councils to build on the work of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS).
“The government deemed it urgent to act and I believe this action was needed because not enough was being done,” chairman Steve Lowndes said.
“The commissioners didn’t have to worry about democracy or the niceties of how a regional council works.
“Together with the chief executive they went straight into reorganising the management set-up of ECan and set about putting in place what has been a series of plans with plan change 7.
“That’s like a cloak has been thrown over the entire Canterbury Plains limiting nutrient levels potentially impacting on freshwater quality and this latest Action for Healthy Waterways Freshwater Plan carries on from that series of plans.”
Lowndes said the foundation of the CWMS was laid before the commissioners came in.
To make the transition from the commissioners’ reign to an elected council the National Government put in a hybrid council of six commissioners and seven elected members in 2016.
Three of the seven elected members are farmers, one each from the South, Mid and North Canterbury wards and commissioner Tom Lambie is also a farmer.
Lowndes was elected to the council in a Christchurch ward in 2016 and elected deputy chairman. He became chairman in 2017 following the death of former chairman and one of the six commissioners, David Bedford.
“The triennium I believe has worked very well as a hybrid council.
“We haven’t fallen into a political division or an urban-rural divide,” Lowndes said.
Interest is strong for ECan’s return to full democracy with 39 candidates standing for the 14 seats, including six for the two North Canterbury seats, four for the two Mid Canterbury seats, six for the two South Canterbury seats and 23 candidates for the eight seats across four Christchurch wards.
Farmers and related candidates far outweigh others vying for rural seats at the council but Lowndes said that’s no cause for alarm.
Others in the rural wards include scientists, engineers and a former mayor.
“Yes, obviously these are rural environments and obviously leaders in rural environments will very often be farmers and I bet in this case the majority standing will have been on a zone committee and got their experience there and are now spurred on to continue their local community interest.
“I am not alarmed by the fact a lot of farmers are standing, I am well aware of the efforts the farmers are making.”
With significant changes in demographics over the past 10 years the overload of farmers doesn’t necessarily signal an all-farmer success come election day.
“Looking at the regional wards in the south we have Timaru, the second biggest town in the region, in Mid Canterbury we have the growing urban Rolleston town and in the north there’s the towns of Rangiora and Kaiapoi so they are not all rural.
“I’m 73, I’m not standing again, not just because it’s hard work but because it’s a job for a younger person and we need young people with an eye on the future, not an old man.
“I look forward now to listening and watching how the new council performs,” Lowndes said.
