A Representation Review is held under legislation, every eight years, to determine whether a Council’s community would benefit from a change to the Council's composition or ward structure.
Each Council is required to complete this process and must address the current state while also planning for the future requirements of the Council area.
What does this review include?
Section 12 of the Local Government Act (the Act) outlines the requirements of the review to ensure fair and equitable representation of all City of Prospect electors. The review must consider the following elements:
- The principal member of Council;
- The composition of Council;
- The number of elected members required to adequately represent the community and perform the roles and responsibility of Council;
- The division (or not) of the Council area into wards;
- The number of wards;
- The level of representation and elector ratio within each ward;
- Ward names;
- The Council name (if required)
Note: You can go to the Document Library (right of this page) to see the original Ward Map Options and Representation Review Options Paper under Round 1.
Having completed the first round of public consultation in early June 2021 which provided a number of representation structure options to the community, Council has identified its preferred future elector representation arrangements.
In brief, Council proposes to:
- Retain a Mayor, elected by the community, as the principal member;
- Continue to divide the Council area into four wards with retention of the same names (similar to the current ward structure although with changes to some internal ward boundaries to ensure entire streets (aside from main roads) fall within one distinct ward), with each of the wards being represented by two Councillors; and
- Adopt that the future elected body of Council comprised of the Mayor and eight ward Councillors (as is the current composition).
The specific street changes noted above are as follows:
- Beatrice Street (South) to be removed from Ward 2 (West Ward) and added to Ward 1 (North Ward);
- Pym Street (South) to be removed from Ward 2 (West Ward) and added to Ward 1 (North Ward);
- Farrant Street and below (Gordon Road and a portion of Gray Street) to be removed from Ward 1 (North Ward) and added to Ward 3 (Central Ward);
- Stevenson Street (South) to be removed from Ward 3 (Central Ward) and added to Ward 4 (East Ward); and
- D’Erlanger Avenue (West) to be removed from Ward 3 (Central Ward) and added to Ward 4 (East Ward).
Ward Names
Currently, the names of the Wards are simply:
- North Ward
- West Ward
- Central Ward
- East Ward
One of the questions asked within the Survey (see below) is “Do you have any suggestions for ward names that you would like Council to consider in the future?”.
Along with seeking suggestions from our residents, Council has written to Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation KYAC (a peak organisation representing Kaurna interests) asking for their advice and suggestions for Council use of Kaurna words that may be used as ward names or for co-naming.
Suggestions and comments from residents and KYAC will form the basis of a separate community consultation for presentation to Council for decision in the future.
Have Your Say
This is your final chance to have a say on how your Council will look for the next eight year period.
To assist with the conduct of the review, a Representation Review Report has been prepared setting out the full details, the results from the first round of public consultation, as well as the rationale for the choice of the preferred representative arrangement.
Members of the community are invited to complete the survey (below), expressing their views on the preferred composition and structure of Council. The Representation Review Report provides details of what is currently under consideration, and feedback is welcome.
As an option to the survey, or in addition, interested residents may make a written submission expressing their views on the proposed composition and structure of Council.
Any person(s) making a written submission or completing the survey will be invited to appear before a future Council meeting to be heard in respect of their submission. Council will hear these submissions at its meeting in September 2021.
Feedback can be provided by;
- Completing the online survey (below),
- Completing a hard copy of the survey (available from Payinthi),
- Providing a written submission via:
- Email to admin@prospect.sa.gov.au
- Post to PO Box 171,Prospect SA 5082
The consultation on the final Representation Review Report will run from 29 July to 22 August 2021.