“Are you being served?” is the question being asked by Otago Regional Council (ORC) with an online survey.

The ORC is seeking feedback on whether people feel they have fair and effective representation at the regional council table.

Council chair Gretchen Robertson said the survey is the first step in a representation review which councils are required to do every six years under the Local Electoral Act.

“The review will look at changes to population and any flow-on impact on representation,” she said.

Population, communities of interest, the number of wards and ward boundaries, as well as the number and distribution of elected members, will all be considered before any potential changes are contemplated.

These will then be part of an initial proposal to be decided on by the council by the middle of the year, before it is put to the public for consultation.

“This review will need to look at areas like the wider Dunstan area (Queenstown, Wanaka and Central Otago), where population growth means current representation may not be enough to meet legal requirements,” Gretchen said.

Council will make a decision on its initial representation proposal by May and submissions will be called for following that.

Every six years councils must review how communities are represented in their makeup.

The review looks at the structures in place, including the number of constituencies and their boundaries, and the number of elected members representing each constituency.

The representation review cannot change the people who are currently elected, but it may increase the number of councillors. Fourteen is the maximum number of councillors a regional council can have. Otago has 12.

The last representation review for Otago Regional Council was completed in 2018. Back then no changes were made to the existing four constituencies or number of councillors elected - three in Dunstan, one in Moeraki, two for Molyneux, and six in Dunedin.

Representation reviews require the council to look at three key concepts 

Communities of interest: to identify what communities of interest exist across the district, to help determine the number and boundaries of constituencies.

Effective representation of communities of interest: to identify the best structure to maintain access and representation, recognising these communities of interest, which is relevant to determining the number of members.

Fair representation of electors: to ensure each councillor represents roughly the same number of people, which is relevant for ensuring equality of representation per member.

The survey is online at the Otago Regional Council website.

Council is expected to make a decision on an initial representation proposal by May 2024, to then be put to the public for submissions.

The survey opened on February 9 and runs for a month.