Kāpiti’s Community Boards – will they stay or will they go

Kāpiti Coast councillors, Peter Ellis, Tony Jack, Diane Ammundsen, David Scott, and Anne Molineux say the days of Kāpiti having four Community Boards should be over.

The five councillors argue Kāpiti would be better off dumping the Waikanae and Paraparaumu/Raumati Community Boards and getting rid of ward councillors for Ōtaki, Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Raumati/Paekākāariki in favour of 10 councillors elected district wide.

The five councillors have appealed moves to retain the boards to the Local Government Commission.

Not surprisingly these moves are not finding favour among the Community Board chairs and most other councillors.

Waikanae Community Board chair Michael Scott told KCNews “we would be better off dumping the phantom councillor Molineux.

“It’s a bit rich coming from her. She spends more time away from the area than in it and has a meeting attendance record to be very embarrassed about.”

Mr Scott said he was surprised “they were having another go. There was a move to get rid of the Community Boards back in Mayor Milne’s time and they spent the next couple of years apologising for it.

“Community Boards are here to stay and they perform a vital function in the democratic process. The number of councillors we have might be the real issue,” said Mr Scott.

The Local Government Commission will consider all appeals in a public hearing in the KCDC chambers at 2pm on 31 March 2010.