Otago Peninsula community board chairwoman
Christine Garey compared the review panel's suggestion that boards might be gone in six years' time to ''a redundancy with a long notice period''.
She said both local people and council staff relied on the community boards ''to let them know what is happening''.
Saddle Hill community board chairman
Scott Weatherall said he believed the council viewed Dunedin as being one cohesive community - a view he called ''naive''.
''All one community -well, yes, regarding footy, but day to day we are a mix of communities.''
He said it was concerning the public might see the review panel's proposals as a ''fait accompli'' and not bother voicing their opinions on it.
Chalmers community board chairman
Steve Walker said the boards were advocates for matters small communities knew were worth fighting for.
He said the Ravensbourne to St Leonards cycleway ''was never going to happen'' without community board advocacy.
The result of that advocacy was ''potentially one of the most beautiful cycleways in the world,'' he said.
Waikouaiti Coast community board chairman
Gerard Collings said the council had shown it agreed with the review panel's recommendations by voting those recommendations to go out to public consultation.
''If it's not council's view then this would be the first time that I'm aware that the council has ever put out a view for consultation that they didn't support.''
Strath Taieri community board chairman
Barry Williams said dropping the number of community board members to four would make it difficult in such a vast area to get the required numbers around a table to achieve any decision.
''We struggle sometimes to get the quorum already.''
People in the ''diverse'' Strath Taieri communities felt they were able to communicate with their community board members, ''where they struggle to get to the councillors''.
Mosgiel Taieri community board chairman
Bill Feather said his community had ''shared hardships'', including frequent flooding and being cut off from Dunedin during snowfalls. During such times the community depended on the community board's leadership.
''I do believe that the community will be the loser in the operation.''
