Two former Teviot Community Board members have warned the Central Otago District Council that removing their delegated authority to make decisions will be devastating.

John Lane - also a former councillor, and Helen Pinder both spoke in the public forum at the community board meeting in Roxburgh yesterday, warning this could be the end of community boards in Central Otago.

“There will be one term and then community boards will disappear . . . no-one will want to stand on the board and they will wither and die,” John said.

Council chief executive Peter Kelly assured the board that despite what happens, the role of the community board wouldn't change, under the Local Government Act.

Pointing out that when council made decisions, it went through a significant engagement policy, which often meant consulting with the community anyway.

“There are still protections that have to go through council.”

So far, both the Vincent and Maniototo community boards are on board with the proposed changes by council, but Cromwell is totally against the proposal, and the Teviot will make a written submission - also opting to speak personally at the next council meeting on February 28.

Peter said there would be three options at that meeting, the first is to retain the status quo, the second was to include the discussion into the Long Term Plan, and the third was to push on with the proposed changes.

“We won't say where our preference lies, it will be what it is on the day,” Peter said.

Teviot Community Board chair Norman Dalley said because the Teviot had no significant income or reserves to spend on new projects, he agreed with Peter that a lot of the big decisions that affected them came through council anyway.

 “So our responsibility has diminished over time and I don’t see that changing in the future.”

However, there was a limited time to respond to the proposal - just three days for a written submission, which he said was an impossible task.  

Peter outlined that a board representative would also be able to talk personally to their submission at the public forum of the next council meeting. 

While the proposal meant less decision making at community board level, the chair of each would present a report to council four times a year, giving another voice around the table.

“I think there are some seeds of good in there,” Norman said.

Read more: Central Otago community boards under local government review

Read more: Maniototo Community Board supports delegation review