Better Resourcing For Community Boards Key to Good Outcomes

 

During this morning’s chat with Councillor Lisa Thomson (as she made her way into an extraordinary council meeting at Ngāruawāhia), she discussed whether we would see more devolvement of power to Community Boards in the next council term.


“I don’t think the discussion should be done in isolation with just council. Community boards and the community need to be brought into the discussion because each community is different.


“A one-size-fits-all approach is not necessarily appropriate in my view and you know I’m all for devolving more power, but in order for us as council to do that - we need to ensure that we resource our Community Boards and community adequately.”


Lisa stressed that it was important for community board members and the community to input their feedback around what that could look like.


“I’d hate for us to make these decisions and push it down on the Community Boards and they can’t deliver because they’re busy and we haven’t resourced it or thought about how to manage that and support them - and we want them to flourish so it has to be a balance.”


Lisa goes on to say that the Raglan Community Board has demonstrated their ability to deliver outcomes and be resourceful in the last two terms.


New Sustainability and Wellbeing Committee

Having been elected as the chair of the newly established Sustainability and Wellbeing Committee, Lisa says that their first meeting won’t be held until February next year.


The new committee was an idea that came up in the last triennium and the council staff have pulled together the relevant issues that come under the umbrella which includes anything that involves front facing community engagement such as the blueprints, wellbeing, mana whenua forums and climate action.


“We will be sitting down to figure out what we can achieve in a three year term - realistically. There is a wide scope so we need to be careful not to go all over the place. I want to be strategic and considered as to what we focus on,” said Lisa.


Wharf Project Update

The Wharf Project has received a $3.2 million funding boost from the Government’s Better Off funding scheme to complete the Western Walkway which had been put on hold due to budgeting issues.


The amount received is enough to cover the entirety of the project which means that contractors Beca can complete the project without waiting for additional funding rounds.


Remedial work on the wharf structure and pontoon construction has already started.



Coming up:

  • RAFFA Film Festival Red Carpet Awards this Saturday, November 19th at Te Uku Hall. Buy your Red Carpet Tickets Now.
  •  Raglan Community Patrol celebrates 25 years this Sunday.
  •  Next Raglan Community Board Meeting is on 30 November 2022, 01:30 pm - 04:00 pm at the Town Hall Supper Room.
  •  Strategy and Finance Committee first meeting on Wednesday, December 7, 9.30am- 12pm