Councillors fear CDAs could go under proposal
Two Southland District councillors stood against the majority of their peers and voted against a proposal they say may eventually wipe out the voices of small communities.
Crs John Douglas and Stuart Baird voted against the recommendation put before the council at a meeting yesterday on a representation review, because they fear the historic Community Development Area Subcommittees may disappear.
The pair supported the majority of the council’s representation review changes, but the sticking point for them was the impact on the CDAs.
With community boards expanding to cover the whole district there would be an overlap where some boards and CDAs would cover the same area.
The proposal would lead to the CDAs being abolished and the loss of a volunteer base present in the communities who provided local leadership, Douglas said.
Baird said he believed that a lot of people, including those who submitted on the proposal, did not realise that the community boards were becoming districtwide and that the council would do away with the CDAs.
The Southland District Council has two tiers of representation in its district; one being via community boards, and its CDAs.
Under the current structure, there are more than 175 members of the council, community boards, and various committees and subcommittees yet about 10,000 people are not represented.
The local Electoral Act 2001 requires local authorities to conduct a review of their representation at least once every six years.
Many people who were passionate about their community were involved with the CDAs and provided a large input into the council, Baird said.
‘‘I believe there is a need for some type of formal CDA structure in some of our wards,’’ Baird said.
The final decision on the fate of the CDAs will be made following the 2019 election.
Pending the approval from the Local Government Commission, councillors, bar Douglas and Baird, approved the recommendation to abolish the EdendaleWyndham, Otautau, Riverton Aparima, Wallacetown and Winton community boards.
The new boards will be Ardlussa, Fiordland, Northern, Oreti, Stewart Island Rakiura, Wallace Takitimu, Tuatapere Te Waewae, Oraka Aparima and Waihopai Toetoe.
Mayor Gary Tong said this was an opportunity to do it (community representation) better and there was the appeal process.
In his view the community would be in a better position, Tong said.
Cr Ebel Kremer said he believed after 30 years it was time to make a change to the structure.
Cr Kremer did not think it was a case of abandoning the communities.
The council needed to ensure that those smaller communities did have a voice, he said.
‘‘If we do not deliver we have failed our communities significantly.’’
After the meeting, Wallacetown community board chair Peter Laurie said he thought it was a bad move going to a district-wide community board structure. The voices of smaller communities would be drowned out by larger communities if they were lumped together, Laurie said.