Although the majority of submissions last month supported the Arrowtown ward and councillor, commissioners were presented with both sides of the argument at the representation review hearing yesterday.
Of the 230 written submissions to the Queenstown Lakes District Council, over 90% were in favour of keeping an Arrowtown ward and most of those were against the establishment of a community board to represent the town of about 2800.
However, some verbal submissions yesterday in front of commissioners Michael Parker and Janice Hughes proposed scrapping the Arrowtown ward altogether and amalgamating with the Wakatipu board.
Long-time resident and former Wakatipu councillor Don Spary said the residents of Arrowtown would be disadvantaging themselves if they remained separate from the established Wakatipu ward. Although submissions from Arrowtown had been sincere and enthusiastic, residents had not taken a step back and thought of the alternatives.
"It is more important to have six councillors that you voted for whether they live in Kelvin Heights or wherever."
Mr Spary felt the option of a community board would take up money that could be used elsewhere and that Arrowtown, with or without a community board, had always been "self driven".
Another proponent of getting rid of the Arrowtown ward was local real estate agent Michael Tierney.
Mr Tierney said the ward system had served its purpose but was now outdated, and if it were to continue could create a "narrow-minded" community within the Queenstown Lakes area.
"A ward system creates an environment where people look very closely at their own affairs rather than looking at the wider community. Arrowtown has been considered to have a one-eyed past."
He admitted the idea of a dedicated councillor living in Arrowtown had some merit for protecting the historic precinct of the town, but saw no value in a community board.
The hearing was a result of the Government's six-yearly review of council representation, which showed Arrowtown was 200 residents short, according to a 2006 census estimate, of qualifying for its own ward and representative.
Fourth-generation Arrowtown resident Chris Read submitted the cost of a community board was too much and the best option was to keep the Arrowtown ward and councillor despite census estimates indicating Arrowtown was short of the 3000 benchmark.
Mr Read said the census growth figure of 2.5% was not representative and the council's own growth policy for Arrowtown was at least 5.5% and had been used in recent plan changes and the Environmental Court.
"How much sense does this make, and clearly it is contrary to the principles of the local electoral Act. This fact alone exposes the council's proposal ...
"The statistics used are acknowledged by the council to be flawed."
Arrowtown Business Association chairman Adin May pointed out to commissioners that 20% of the 1.9 million visitors to Queenstown every year would also visit Arrowtown.
This meant the census figures for the Arrowtown ward were disproportional to the town's economic and historic contribution.
"This means the town caters for 380,000 international and domestic visitors a year, on top of the local market."
The commissioners have until the end of the month to make their recommendation to the council for its early July meeting.
