What does the City Council do?

This article provides some information for voters in the upcoming local body elections about what Environment Canterbury does.
It is part of a series of four posts (linked below) that introduce the duties of the councils that we are voting for in this year's local body elections. 

What does Environment Canterbury do?
What do community boards do? and
What do District Health boards do? 



 The Christchurch City Council is a large organisation that is charged with looking after the wellbeing of the citizens of Christchurch.  

Three Waters: It provides safe drinking water, processes wastewater and  manages stormwater including looking after all the pipes for transporting these different waters.

Roads footpaths and transport facilities: It looks after most of the roads around the City, and many transport facilities from bus stops and bus stations to cyclepaths, footpaths and carparking.  

Social Wellbeing:  It writes development and management plans of many different types, contributes to social housing, contributes to economic development and supports community groups around the City.  It also runs events and activities and generally makes our city a good place to live in.

Waste Management:  The council deals with our waste and rubbish collection, 

Civil defence and hazard management it works to manage flooding and prevent damage to property, It had an important role in the Port Hills Fires and in the aftermath of the earthquakes. 

The elected council oversees this and works with staff to prioritise spending and services across the City. In Christchurch at present, There is a lot going on to rebuild the city so we have more than our fair share of maintaining and replacing buildings and negotiating with central government and the business community to progress the city’s recovery. 

As a result of all this, the Christchurch City Council has a significant impact on the lives of people living in Christchurch and electing people to set the council’s direction and authorise its spending is a serious job that we all have every three years. 

Councillors do a lot of reading and learning about these services, a lot of work to help people in their communities and spend a lot of time in meetings discussing the issues and making decisions, hopefully in the best interests of our city.  It is not an easy task and it takes peoples with patience and a capacity to understand what is going on both locally and at national level.