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Town board: times ticks Lauren Prebble
journalist@thewanakasun.co.nz
plan to disestablish the Wānaka Community Board is certain to meet opposition and residents have just two weeks to have their say on it. A review committee has recommended a plan to abolish the district's only community board, which has been advocating for the township for 30 years. The Wānaka community has been given until August 6 to make submissions on the fate of the board. The proposal has come from a Representation Review Advisory Group which was formed early this year. The district council is required to go through a representation review every six years - though this review comes after a three year period. The review considered councillor numbers, ward names and boundaries, communities of interest and the future of community boards. It did not consider the role of mayor. It has recommended a council of 12 covering four wards - Whakatipu, Kawarau, Arrowtown and Wānaka-Hāwea. Whakatipu and WanakaHāwea would both have four councillors, Kawarau three and Arrowtown one. But the major change is abolishing the Wānaka Community Board. Wānaka’s Viv Milsom was one of the seven members on the panel. She told Wanaka Sun she was uncomfortable with the conclusions it reached. The group, which included Queenstown Lakes District Council staff, also considered dropping the Arrowtown ward seat. It is understood that caused a division among councillors and did not go ahead. Under the proposals Wānaka-Hāwea gets an extra councillor, Whakatipu, based on what is now the Queentown ward, has fewer councillors than its predecessor. The decision to abolish the Wānaka Community Board was passed by one vote and has disappointed board chairman Barry Bruce,
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Wānaka’s Community Board - is the end nigh?
who believes it overlooks points of difference. “The community here is different to Queenstown,” he said. Viv Milsom saw the board as an important piece of grass root democracy. “The fact that it is the only Community Board in QLDC is no reason to now disestablish it,” she said. “Quite the contrary. Wanaka today represents 30 per cent of the total population of QLDC and is growing faster than the Whakatipu Basin,” she said.
Viv Milsom believes council advertising on the changes has been misleading while Mr Bruce suggests it is is contradictory. ‘They pitched it like it was either the community board or the fourth councillor… we are entitled to a fourth councillor regardless,” said Mr Bruce. Former community board chairman and now councillor Quentin Smith believes the community will be aptly represented under the proposed changes, but Viv Milson says “there is no way one person can replace a board.”
“The drive to disestablish the WCB is coming from QLDC,” she believes. Barry Bruce thinks the move to cut the community board is premature as it comes at a time when central government is looking to reform local government. ‘My concern is that if there are changes, Community Boards might play a more important role. The community board advocates purely for Wanaka… it gets projects over the line.” Submissions on the Wānaka plan will be heard on August 27.
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