Section 40 of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) requires each local authority to prepare and make publicly available, following the triennial general election of members, a local governance statement (PDF 260kb) that includes information on:

Sub-section (1)

a) the functions, responsibilities, and activities of the local authority; and
b) any local legislation that confers powers on the local authority; and
c) the electoral system and the opportunity to change it; and
d) representation arrangements, including the option of establishing Maori wards or constituencies, and the opportunity to change them; and
e) members' roles and conduct (with specific reference to the applicable statutory requirements and code of conduct); and
f) governance structures and processes, membership , and delegations; and
g) meeting processes (with specific reference to the applicable provisions of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 and standing orders); and
h) consultation policies; and
i) policies for liaising with, and memoranda or agreements with, Maori; and
j) the management structure and the relationship between management and elected members; and
k) equal employment opportunities policy; and
l) key approved planning and policy documents and the process for their development and review; and
m) systems for public access to it and its elected members; and
n) processes for requests for official information.

The governance statement (PDF 260kb) must be updated as the Council considers appropriate. The Chief Executive has been authorised by Council to amend the statement as necessary to keep it current.

Section 274 of the LGA requires that the first local governance statement must be prepared by 31 December 2003.

The Local Governance Statement (PDF 260kb) is published in the Adobe Reader format. You will need to install the Adobe Reader program on your computer in order to read the Plan. If you do not already have the Adobe Reader installed you can download it from the Adobe website.