The establishment of Transport Liaison Groups was a Council priority action, says ORC Transport portfolio co-lead Councillor Matt Hollyer.

Cr Hollyer says the report progresses the establishment of two Transport Liaison Groups, one each for the public transport networks in Dunedin and Queenstown.

“Establishing these groups is a Council priority action and is intended to strengthen feedback from public transport users, operators and community representatives, while improving relationships and communication between Governance, ORC staff, operators and customers.” — Councillor Matt Hollyer.

At a full Council meeting in Queenstown last week (23rd) Councillors agreed that Transport Portfolio co-leads would work with staff to finalise the proposed membership lists. The Council also appointed Chair Calvert to sit on the Dunedin liaison group alongside Councillor Somerville, and Councillor Gillespie to sit on the Queenstown liaison group alongside Councillor Hollyer.

In addition, Council agreed that the groups should meet at least three times a year – in February, July and October. An update, including membership details, will be provided to Council in November.

Cr Hollyer says staff had prepared a proposed membership model for each group and a draft Terms of Reference for Council consideration.

The membership model seeks to include elected member representation, territorial authority representation, operators, regular users, Māori interests, accessibility and Total Mobility perspectives, education, health, business, migrant community, sport, walking and cycling interests, with potential local variation proposed between Dunedin and Queenstown, he says.

The report to Council says that in May 2026, Council agreed to progress 34 priority actions across a number of work areas.

One of the actions was to re-establish transport liaison groups to support more direct feedback on the two existing public transport networks, and to enable better relationships and communications between Governance and ORC staff, and operators and customers.

The intention of the transport liaison groups is to provide an advisory forum that supports better communication and understanding between Council and its staff, transport operators, customers and community representatives.