Under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (or LGOIMA for short), any person, group or organisation may request information held by any local government agencies, including our Council.
The purpose of this act is to increase the availability of official information held, promote transparency and the open and public transaction of business at meetings, to enable more effective public participation in decision-making and also promote the accountability of members and officials.
Generally, the requests under LGOIMA, are fully complied with but occasionally, if there are valid reasons, councils may withhold access to certain limited information. The most common reasons for this are protecting people’s privacy, to maintain legal privilege and commercial sensitivities.
During the 2023/2024 financial year, our Council received 97 LGOIMA requests. We have noticed the quantity of requests has generally increased over time, possibly due to increased public interest in Council activities.
Of these requests, 83% came from outside of the Waimate District, with the rest from local residents. The topics of the requests were many and varied, ranging from information on solar farms in the Waimate District, to nitrates in the town and rural water supplies, to data on Council’s entertainment and catering expenditure.
Managing and responding to LGOIMA requests requires staff time to: receive, acknowledge and clarify requests as required, source the requested information, review and respond to the request, document and above all else, ensure we are compliant under the act to respond to the requester within the 20 working day deadline. While there is no cost to request the information, in some cases a charge may be made for supplying the information where considerable staff time or resources are required, based on Council’s current fees and charges. A lot of useful Council information is already freely available on our website.
For further information on the LGOIMA process, go to waimatedc.govt.nz/council/oia
