"If it ain't broke, don't fix it. "
That comment was repeated several times in submissions to be considered by the Central Otago District Council tomorrow and summed up the feeling of the majority of submitters.
A review of local government representation has attracted 119 submissions, more than two-thirds from Cromwell residents.
Nearly all the Cromwell submitters opposed the proposal that eight district councillors be elected at large, rather than the current ward-based system.
The alteration in the way councillors are elected and the reduction from 10 to eight councillors are the major changes proposed in the review.
They also attracted the most responses.
At the August council meeting, Cr Gordon Stewart, of Cromwell, said fewer councillors would make more work for those elected and he was concerned that with elections at large, smaller communities, such as the Teviot Valley and Maniototo, could lose their representation.
Those comments were reflected in many of the submissions from Cromwell residents and some Teviot Valley residents.
People from Alexandra, Clyde, Waikouaiti, Maniototo, Omakau and Dunedin also aired their views on the topic.
Recommendations from an independent panel were used as a basis for the representation review. The panel said an election at large would give greater potential for a wider cross-section of people on the council and would also reduce parochialism.
Opponents of the change, such as submitter James Dicey, of Cromwell, said one area could be over-represented if councillors were elected at large.
"Voting at large could lay the way open to have pressure groups, based on race, gender, or whatever other flavour of the political moments, seek to have representation, as of right," Mr Dicey said.
Former Central Otago mayor Malcolm Macpherson agreed with the proposal for elections at large, saying criticism of the change was "old-fashioned nonsense".
"The evidence is that at-large elections don't disadvantage small communities, but rather the contrary and, in any case, if effective governance relied on voice alone, there's something fundamentally wrong with the governors," he said.
