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We featured the following comments on the front page of the TawaLink website on 14th August 2006 at the time of the Wellington City Council's (or should that be Councillors') attempts to disestablish (get rid of) the Tawa Community Board:
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WILL TAWA LOSE OUT YET AGAIN?
As an older Tawa resident reminded me just today, Tawa lost its independence when it was forced into amalgamation with Wellington City in 1989 - very much against its will.
Tawa was then given its own ward on the City Council, but this was done away with in 1998. To be fair, that was only ever a 'temporary arrangement' anyway, or so they say.
In 2002 the Tawa Resource Centre 'went into (voluntary) recess', but the funding directed towards that by the City Council was lost to Tawa.
Earlier this year the Tawa Service Centre in Cambridge Street was closed.
There may have been valid reasons for some or all of these 'endings/closures', but on each occasion the residents of Tawa have been the losers in one way or another.
Now the majority of City Councillors have voted to abolish our Community Board, Tawa's voice on the Wellington City Council. This distinctive little enclave is geographically separate from Wellington, very much out on a limb, so much removed from the minds of City Councillors that if we lose our Community Board, it will be all too easy for them to totally forget we exist, all 14,600 of us (including Grenada North and the Takapu Valley).
The Tawa Community Board does do a lot for Tawa, whether you're aware of it or not. Okay, I (Malcolm Sparrow) am hardly impartial, seeing I've been an elected member of the Board since April 2005. But even if I wasn't, I would still be of the opinion that Tawa has a lot to lose if the Board is abolished. However that doesn't have to happen if enough of us do something about it ...
At this point a link was provided to a Submission form that could be completed and sent to the Council here.
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