Community board changes voted in

Big changes to Dunedin's community boards have been voted through by the Dunedin City Council in a marathon two day deliberation meeting.

That meeting began last week and ended yesterday, when the council voted to reduce the number of community boards, the number of members per board, and the area of Dunedin covered by them.

Those decisions would now be sent to the Local Government Commission, which would have the final say on the shape of Dunedin's democratic make up.

That decision was expected early next year.

Councillors sparred and niggled at times yesterday and many decisions came down to close votes. But the result was a representation system almost identical to that suggested by the Representation Review Panel earlier this year.

Included in the significant decisions were:

• A reduction from six community boards to five.

• The amalgamation of the rural parts of the Taieri and Strath Taieri into one rural community board area.

• Reduction from six members per board to five, except:

• The new rural board would have six members due its large geographic spread.

• The removal of significant chunks of urban and semi urban Dunedin from the old Mosgiel Taieri and Saddle Hill community board areas.

• Continuing to have councillors sit on each community board.

Arguably, the biggest changes would affect those on the southern perimeter of Dunedin's urban area.

Mosgiel, Fairfield, the Corstorphine to Blackhead block, Kaikorai Hill, rural areas above Abbotsford, and lifestyle areas of the Chain Hills would all now be without community board representation.

The remaining rural section of the current Mosgiel Taieri board would now be amalgamated with the current Strath Taieri board, creating a giant rural ward with a new name - the Rural Taieri Community Board.

Last week, the council voted to remove Tomahawk and Ocean Grove from the Otago Peninsula Community Board, and to move all councillors to an ''at large'' voting system.

-craig.borley@odt.co.nz

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