Representation review 2027

Councils must review their representation arrangements at least once every six years. This helps ensure our communities continue to have fair and effective representation.

Nelson City Council is required to review its representation arrangements in preparation for the 2028 local elections.

The last time Nelson City Council carried out a review of its representation arrangements was in 2021 in preparation for the 2022 local elections.

On 21 October 2021 the Council publicly notified its final representation proposal, which comprised of 12 members elected from a mixed ward/at-large system, plus the Mayor and no community boards.
Two appeals were received by the Council from the community which were referred to the Local Government Commission.
Upon conclusion of the appeals process the Local Government Commission confirmed the Councils final proposal in its determination. You can read the determination here.

As part of any representation review, local authorities must provide for effective representation of communities of interest and fair representation of electors. There are three key factors to carefully consider which are:

• Communities of interest
• Effective representation of communities of interest
• Fair representation of electors.

These considerations will be informed by a review of the number and boundaries of wards, the number of members to be elected by each ward, population, electoral area names and consideration of whether to establishment of community boards

Click here to find out more about representation reviews.