Ruapehu boards to stay in place

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 425, 25 February 1992, Page 1

Ruapehu boards to stay in place

But council vote split 8-7 on community boards issue

THE MAYOR'S CASTING VOTE was the deciding factor on the future of Ruapehu District community boards at last Friday's full council meeting. The council was voting on whether to rescind the earlier decision to scrap community boards, and it was seven for and seven against until the mayor used his casting vote in favour of keeping the boards. The resolution was that: "The resolution of Council dated 1 October 1991 relating to the review of Community Board structure and alternatives be revoked," and "Further

that for the triennial election of October 1992 and the ensuing electoral period the constitution of communities remain in the present form." Opposition to the U-turn was loud and clear from Councillor Ellen Gould, who said she was bitterly disappointed at the decision. "Our credibility has been knocked - we've spent hours and hours on this one. After all the talk about being forced into the community board system by the Local Government Commission, I thought at ieast one

(unnecessary) layer of local government could be removed," said Cr Gould. She said she did not feel the community boards were providing the best interface with the public and community groups. She said the Waimarino board, for example, did not fairly represent its community, that Cr Bill Peach was the only one with tourism connections and that there were no Maori people on the board. "Community boards are not the answer. We don't need community boards and we Turnpage2

Community boards to stay

From page 1 can't afford community boards. Look what we are going to do to libraries (referring to the review of the council's library activities)- how many people out there know at what cost we have boards?" "I don't know what your board gets up to but we do relate to the community very well," said Cr Lawson. He said Maori had

the same opportunity to stand as anyone else. Cr Bill Peach said he supported the resolution, saying he was not at the meeting where the decision to scrap boards altogether was made. He said he favoured two boards, a southem and a northern.He said council agendas were very large and that boards did act as a useful interface. They

were not perfect but did provide a service. In his report on the matter to council, mayor Garrick Workman said "Presuming the Boards are to remain, I would suggest ... we arrange a meeting of all the boards and the council ... to iron out some of the concerns being expressed about their operationand to establish if possible a more meaningful role for them in the future."