Council elected by 10.7% of electorate ignores 20 submissions to improve electoral representation

Whaingaroa Environmental Defence Incorporated

Registered no.1912150

 

WED is holding a meeting on Monday 3 September at 7.30pm in the Community House to decide whether to appeal against Waikato District dismissing submissions seeking to expand the area of the Raglan Community Board electorate and divide it to allow separate representation for town and country so as to prepare for the Board to take control of more local issues. Council agreed to expand the size of Raglan ward to include Waitetuna and Cogswell valleys, but refused to expand the Board area beyond their original proposal. Two different reasons have been given for rejecting those submissions. Neither fit the facts.

Raglan councillor, Clint Baddeley, told the Raglan Community Board and wrote in Raglan Chronicle that, “Council has decided not to extend the Community Board boundary as far as the Ward boundary but following consultation has extended it to include parts of Ruapuke, Te Mata and Te Uku. The Raglan Community Board has traditionally been focused on the needs of the town.” The Board has been focused on the town, but the approved extension to include more countryside doesn’t make sense on that basis.

A Council officer explained Council’s alternative explanation about diluting the role of the councillor by saying it, “was closely aligned to this misunderstanding about the role of the community board”. It seems Council interpreted submissions asking for the Board to be given wider powers (as has been done in Thames-Coromandel and Southland) as a misunderstanding!

Many of the problems heard at Raglan Community Board meetings stem from Council having an incomplete understanding of what happens in an area remote from most of its staff and members. If the Community Board was able to deal with work delegated to Boards elsewhere, it is likely that there would be less waste, electors would feel better represented and Waikato District would no longer have the lowest voting turnout in the country.

WED will also hold its AGM after this meeting. WED was formed in 2007 and has no formal membership. Therefore all are welcome to attend the meeting.