Member of Canterbury Regional Council
In April 2003, Neill was elected to Canterbury Regional Council as a councillor for the Christchurch West constituency. This was a by-election caused by the deaths of Cr. Neil Cherry and Cr. Peter Yeoman. Neill was re-elected in October 2004 and October 2007.
On 25 October 2007, he lost a vote to become chairperson to Sir Kerry Burke by one vote after the voting by councillors was initially tied at seven votes each. On 12 November 2007, he was appointed as the chair of the Regulations Hearing Committee jointly with Cr. Angus McKay. In Mid 2009 the Minister for the Environment, Hon. Nick Smith expressed concerns about the performance of Canterbury Regional Council after the release of an Ministry for Environment survey. In September 2009 the 10 Mayors of Canterbury wrote to the Minister of Local Government(Hon Rodney Hide) and Minister for the Environment (Hon. Nick Smith) setting out concerns in relation to their relationships with Canterbury Regional Council
On 24 September 2009, Neill became Chairman of Canterbury Regional Council after the previous chairman, Sir Kerry Burke, lost a motion of no confidence from the other councillors and it was voted that he be removed from office. On the same day the Local Government minister The Hon.Rodney Hide announced the intention of the Government to conduct a review of the performance of Canterbury Regional Council. Neill as caretaker chair welcomed the review and agreed his Council would fully co-operate with the review team. The review took place in Nov/Dec 2009 and a report was provided to the Ministers in February 2010 (the "Creech Report")The report was damning of the Council in respect of its water management in Canterbury but was otherwise of a positive nature. The Government considered the report and chose to replace the elected councillors on 1 May 2010 with The Hon. Nick Smith appointing commissioners for the equivalent of one election cycle so a Water plan could be decided and implemented. Neill said fittingly in the last meeting of his council on 22 April 2010 that he and his wife would "ride off into the sunset", thus ending Neill's 20 years in politics. While the Government promised under the special legislation to hold democratic elections for the Canterbury Regional Council in 2013, they changed their mind, announcing in 2012 that no elections will be held until 2016.
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