Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown is cautious about changes to the Government’s water reform announced today by the Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty.

“Having 10 entities instead of four is an improvement but I’m still concerned that the community will have less input than they do now with Council.”

Ashburton District would be part of a Canterbury-West Coast entity, one of three in the South Island.

Mayors have been told today that the entities would continue to be owned by local councils on behalf of the public, but they would remain operationally and financially independent from them.

“I am pleased to hear that each council will now have a representative on a regional representative group but it’s still unclear how such a large group will be able to capture the voice of every community and operate successfully.”

With 13 councils in the new Canterbury-West Coast entity, it means there will be 13 council representatives.

There will continue to be an equal number of mana whenua representatives, which brings the total regional representation group for the Canterbury-West Coast entity to 26 members.

The function of the regional representative group is essentially to appoint a board of directors and agree the statement of intent.

Timelines for the new model have been pushed out and all 10 entities will be fully operational by 1 July 2026.

Council will have an opportunity to discuss and clarify Council’s position on the minister’s reset at the next Council meeting on 19 April.