Following public consultation, that proposal was adopted at a council meeting on September 3 last year.
The council received 190 public submissions, with 75 supporting the proposal and 44 against it.
According to an LGC report, 21 did not comment on whether they supported the proposal and 50 indicated they did not support it - but for reasons outside the scope of the representation review.
“Submissions supporting a reduction in the number of elected members were rejected [by the council] due to concerns that a reduction in elected members may result in less diversity, increase the potential for ‘faction’ voting, increase elected member workload, and lacked evidence of greater effectiveness,” the report said.
It said submissions received on the principle of Māori wards were considered out of the scope of the representation review process.
Regarding having two wards, there were “no issues to consider in relation to fair representation”.
There will be 4020 people per elected member from the general ward and 4360 per elected member from the Māori ward.
Last September, councillors voted 11-2 to keep the Māori ward for this year’s election after voting 8-5 in favour of establishing it in October 2023.
In line with Government legislation, the public will vote to retain or disestablish the Māori ward alongside this year’s local election.
The outcome of that referendum will apply to the 2028 and 2031 elections.
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said by adding two Māori wards the council was now in line with all other local authorities in the Horizons Regional Council region.
“If you scale it right down, that is the only change we’ve made.”
Tripe was originally in favour of 10 councillors but said he “wasn’t too upset” about 12.
“My rationale for 10 was I felt it still had a strong representation of the community’s interest but there would be more effective and efficient decision-making,” he said.
“It is what it is.
“It’s not a big deal and the reality is we are able to make good decisions as a council with 13 around the table at the moment.”
The Whanganui Rural Community Board, covering 6210 people, will be retained, with two members from the Whanganui subdivision, three from Kai Iwi and two from Kaitoke.
There were 127 submissions to the council supporting retaining the board and 25 supporting its disestablishment.
The LGC report said it strongly recommended the council closely examine the rural community for the next representation review, especially areas on the urban fringes that had experienced increased levels of development in recent years.
That included an in-depth consultation process with residents, it said.
The next review is scheduled for 2029.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
