The Queenstown Lakes District Council’s three Wanaka councillors say they have been swayed by public opinion and now support retaining the town’s community board.
The move to disband the Wanaka Community Board was one of the recommendations of an independent review panel tasked with reviewing the future representation of the district.
At a full council meeting on June 30, the panel’s recommendations, which included no community boards and four councillors representing three new wards, were passed, along with a last-minute amendment to have an Arrowtown councillor.
The recommendations were put out for public consultation. The council received 302 submissions, of which 213 came from the Upper Clutha.
Online public hearings were livestreamed through the council’s Facebook page last Thursday and Friday.
Cr Quentin Smith apologised for ‘‘reading the sentiment wrongly’’.
He had been of the view the board was ineffective ‘‘so why would we retain something that was effectively inactive’’.
Through the hearings, submissions, ongoing discussions and parallel issues of Three Waters, Resource Management Act and local government reforms he said he had come to the view the board should be retained and made more effective and active.
At a previous Wanaka Community Board meeting, Cr Niamh Shaw questioned its effectiveness and its cost.
She said a phone call from a former board chairperson last weekend had convinced her ‘‘if the board was broken, then council had an obligation to fix it’’.
‘‘I will be advocating to retain the Wanaka Community Board — although it needs to come with a commitment from QLDC (and its elected members) to empower and facilitate it towards a position of ‘authority, influence and dignity’, as a submitter put it.’’
Deputy mayor Calum MacLeod said after undertaking the review process he was now in favour of retaining the board and the council had to test the efficacy of the board by consulting the public.
He said the Upper Clutha had expressed a clear desire to retain the board and the council ‘‘must embrace the efficacy of the WCB as well as ‘grassroots representation’.’’
The full council will make a final decision on September 16, after which there will be a period of one month for appeals.
