Editorial: Sir Kerry should go now

OPINION: When years of discontent within the ranks of Environment Canterbury councillors boiled over this week, it was fitting that the showdown took place in the home of the southern rebellion in Timaru.

Councillors, led by South Canterbury's Mark Oldfield, want Sir Kerry Burke to step down as chairman of the regional council, and his opponents queued up to accuse him of a multitude of sins ranging from bullying and poor leadership to disengagement. Sir Kerry's leadership will go on the line on September 24 and his deputy, Jo Kane, has pledged to put her role up for the vote as well should the chairman get the elbow. Her reasoning is that she must bear some responsibility for the failure, a stance that does her credit.

To be fair to Sir Kerry, he has had a tough job because of the nature of Ecan. The regional council, which has to deal with a raft of crucial environmental issues for the region, is arguably unwieldy and the council is evenly split between rural and urban interests.

His choices are stark either he tries to get the numbers to enable him to limp on to the next election in just over a year's time or he can fall on his sword now. He should do the latter. His position looks untenable given the level of animosity towards him and it must be hoped that if he does the sensible thing and stands down he will be able to continue to contribute to good governance at Ecan as a rank and file council member.

Ecan's ratepayers will care little about all this politicking. All they will care about is good representation and service at a reasonable cost to their hard-pressed wallets.

The best solution for ratepayers will be the election of a suitable compromise candidate with the smarts to heal the rifts and refocus the council's energies away from infighting and onto the job at hand until next year.

Ecan's problems are about more than just Sir Kerry, there is a much bigger game going on. The council has reached a stalemate that can only be overcome by a fresh look at its structure. Ecan's opponents will see it as an opportunity to break it up, splitting its roles between a number of unitary authorities. In the south, where the rebellion against Ecan began, opponents will see it as a golden opportunity to break up the regional council and replace it with a unitary authority encompassing the Aoraki region.

Christchurch City representatives are also likely to want to go their own way, arguing that the big city's special needs would be best met by absorbing Ecan's responsibilities into a single Christchurch council.

Ecan is now a lame duck. Unfortunately the Government has a much bigger worry building an Auckland Supercity and fixing Canterbury's problems is not a priority. That leaves our local political leaders to fix the problems themselves.

- © Fairfax NZ News