In order to establish what fair and effective representation means for Waikato District’s communities, we want our residents and ratepayers to play an active role in the representation review process. Your involvement will have an impact on how you are represented at the next council elections, including:

• the number of councillors, wards and community boards; and
• the boundaries for wards and community boards.

Our consultation strategy has public participation at the core of it. This will include:

• Community Survey

Have your say on what makes up your community and what you think about the current representation arrangements.The survey was open from the 14th August to 27th September 2020.

• Community Focus Group

We will run three types of focus groups to get a detailed understanding of what our communities want in terms of local representation.

• Stakeholder community focus group sessions will be held in three locations around the district during September 2020. A broad range of selected stakeholders will be invited to ensure that the District’s main interests and the people who are significantly involved in their communities have a say.
• A focus group will be held with some of the submitters from the Council’s 2018 representation review.
• We will also have resident focus groups consisting of a randomly selected group of the District’s residents. The focus groups will take place at a number of locations across the District. The groups will be randomly selected to represent the diversity of the District’s population and its communities. This is to ensure that the voices of those who don’t often engage with Council are heard and given an equal voice.

Information will be shared with each focus group to help inform the discussions.The views and feedback provided at the focus groups will be used as part of the analysis shared with the Council when it considers its initial proposal.