BISHOPDALE RATEPAYERS FUND $84,000 REPORT CONCLUDING REPORTS ARE UNDERFUNDED

Ratepayers in Bishopdale have paid $84,000 for an independent review of Christchurch City Council's reporting capacity, which has concluded — after 142 pages and three appendices — that the council's reporting capacity is underfunded and requires further review.

The report, commissioned in April and delivered nine weeks late, was authored by a Wellington-based consultancy whose name this correspondent will not dignify with print. Its central recommendation is a follow-up report, scoped at $120,000, to identify why the first report was insufficient to reach a conclusion.

Bishopdale ratepayer Coralie Nutt, 71, was unimpressed. "Eighty-four grand to be told they need another eighty-four grand. My Gerald would've done it on the back of a Pak'nSave receipt and still had room for the shopping list. Bunch of knobs."

A second ratepayer, contacted at the Bishopdale Mall carpark, described the finding as "a piss-take dressed up in a lanyard" and asked whether anyone at the council had considered simply writing the report themselves. This correspondent forwarded the question. No response has been received at time of filing.

A Christchurch City Council spokesperson said the review demonstrated "a robust commitment to evidence-based decision-making" and confirmed the follow-up report had been approved in principle, pending a scoping document. The scoping document, per council records, will be prepared by an external contractor.

The original report is available on the council website, provided ratepayers can locate the PDF, which is filed under Governance > Strategic Oversight > Reporting Frameworks > Archive (2024) > Miscellaneous.