New Proposal for Community Boards

A new proposal has just been published that would substantially change the way community boards operate in Waihi Beach, Katikati and the rest of the Western Bay of Plenty District.

Your three local district councillors would like feedback from local residents before it goes to a council meeting next Wednesday (Nov 20) for a decision.

Essentially the proposal is to merge the five existing community boards into three – one for each ward. In our ward, Katikati-Waihi Beach, this would mean the current two boards in Waihi Beach and Katikati would be merged into one.

The proposal is to have six elected community board members, with three from Waihi Beach and three from Katikati. Two district councillors would also serve on the new board.

Similar new boards would operate across the Kaimai ward (replacing the Omokoroa community board) and the Te Puke-Maketu ward (replacing the Te Puke and Maketu community boards).

You may ask why, after discussing council representation with the community over the past year or so, this new proposal is being considered at this late stage. This idea has recently come up so was not included in previous consultation. Wednesday’s meeting is the last scheduled meeting to consider the representation review ahead of a legal deadline.

Note that this proposal has NOT been put forward by any of us three councillors, but we are required to consider it, alongside the mayor and other councillors.

We have put out this joint statement as the council has no time now to formally consult on this proposal and we would like to hear your views.

Is one community board for the combined Katikati-Waihi Beach ward (including rural communities) a good idea?

Other options for the community boards set for discussion at the meeting include leaving the two boards as they are or shrinking the Katikati board’s boundary. We have received extensive feedback on that proposal for Katikati.

Feedback can be posted here on Facebook or you can email us. Contact details for the mayor and all councillors are published here: https://www.westernbay.govt.nz/council/mayor-and-councillors

This is already a long post for Facebook so thanks for reading this far. If you would like to see the full proposal, please follow this link to the council agenda for the Nov 20 meeting: https://westernbayofplenty.infocouncil.biz/.../CL...

Discussion of community boards starts on Page 71 (Issue 5: Community Representation) but there is also extensive material on the rest of the representation review, including the number of councillors, wards and ward boundaries, starting on Page 21.

(Note: page numbers may change if more material is added to the agenda. If so, go to the table of contents on Page 5 of the agenda and click on item “10.1 Final proposal for Representation Review” to read more)

Thanks, as always, for your feedback.

- Cr Allan Sole

- Cr Anne Henry

- Cr Rodney Joyce