A possible appeal was signalled to the Otago Daily Times by Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Board member Geoff Davidson last Monday, after he and other members expressed ``unhappiness'' at the way the decision had been made.
The proposal to drop ``Lawrence'' from the area's electoral names, leaving it as plain ``Tuapeka'', was approved by the Clutha District Council during a September 6 meeting reviewing representation arrangements for the district.
That decision was earmarked for confirmation by the Local Government Commission, given a one-month appeal period ended yesterday without drawing any appeals.
However, the board had submitted an appeal yesterday afternoon because it believed the underlying review process was flawed, board chairman Garry McCorkindale said.
``Misunderstandings'' had arisen as a result of an error in a community board submission to the council's review process on August 1.
In the submission, deputy chairwoman Elizabeth Ritchie reported the board was ``not in favour of the name change of the Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Board to Tuapeka Community Board.''
However, in error, the submission failed to object to a parallel name change to the ward, Mr McCorkindale said, although this had been the board's original intention.
``As we said in the submission, Lawrence is a name recognised widely outside the area whereas Tuapeka is somewhat less known, so why change something that's working? But unfortunately, because we made no objection to the ward name change, which was then voted through, the board name had to follow suit. So our initial mistake led to a misunderstanding by council of the wishes of the district, we believe.''
During its meeting last month, the council voted 6-3 in favour of the change, with two abstentions, and four apologies.
But Mr McCorkindale said he was confident a poll of local residents would instead favour retention of the full Lawrence-Tuapeka name.
``Although the council received no other submissions on the change, I think that just reflects the general difficulty of engaging people in these processes. We've lodged this appeal because we believe local people could feel marginalised by having their town name dropped summarily from the electoral process.''
Lawrence-Tuapeka councillor Geoff Blackmore, who voted in favour of the name change, said he remained satisfied with his original decision.
``This is the process. We'll see what happens.''
