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Trays are such a useful item to have in the home – they are obviously great for serving food and drinks, particularly breakfast in bed! Find out how to create your own with Resene wallpaper and Resene Colorwood wood stain with these easy step by step instructions.
Is the flooring at your school, early childhood, community or sports centre old and threadbare? Or perhaps you have a new space where there’s no flooring at all. Your organisation could be eligible to receive $2,000 + gst from the RhinoKids Flooring Fund to go towards new flooring. Plus, one … View moreIs the flooring at your school, early childhood, community or sports centre old and threadbare? Or perhaps you have a new space where there’s no flooring at all. Your organisation could be eligible to receive $2,000 + gst from the RhinoKids Flooring Fund to go towards new flooring. Plus, one lucky organisation will win a $20,000 flooring makeover!
Carpet Court is continuing its’ mission to help improve Kiwi kids’ learning environments by rolling out its’ nationwide fund for the fifth year in a row. Apply today!
By local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
West Coasters confused or against proposed Coastal Hazard zones now have a second chance to have their say.
Mayors, councillors and iwi overseeing the writing of a new combined district plan for the region have voted unanimously to re-notify … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
West Coasters confused or against proposed Coastal Hazard zones now have a second chance to have their say.
Mayors, councillors and iwi overseeing the writing of a new combined district plan for the region have voted unanimously to re-notify 'Variation 2' – the controversial section on Coastal Hazard mapping.
At the Te Tai o Poutini Plan committee meeting on Tuesday, members agreed unanimously to redo the consultation process on the hazard maps and expand it, allowing people to also comment on proposed rules for the hazard zones.
The decision follows a public outcry over the Variation and the way it communicated to the public in June.
Four thousand ratepayers were notified by council letter that new coastal hazard maps (or ‘overlays’) had been created, using updated LiDar surveys, and that their properties were affected.
That could mean they now fell into higher risk hazard areas because of the new data, with implications for building consents, and coastal property values.
They were invited to make submissions on the new maps - but only 112 people did so.
TTPP members reported that many people had binned or ignored the letters because they were written in ‘planner -speak’: impenetrable official language.
Another crucial problem has been brought to light.
People who had submitted on Coastal Hazard maps before 'Variation 2', had been able to also comment on the proposed rules and provisions for those zones.
But those affected by the variation, were asked to submit only on the maps.
They could contest the boundaries or other features in the overlay, but not any rules or restrictions that might apply – even if their homes had not previously been classed as at risk.
Last week, commissioners strongly recommended the TTPP committee renotify the Variation. as soon as possible.
People should be allowed to submit not just on the updated coastal hazard maps, but on the related policies and rules, they said.
In her report to the meeting, TTPP project manager Jo Armstrong supported renotifying as the fairest option, and it would minimise the chance of a costly appeal.
Public submissions could open as early as next week, and close in January, and the commissioners could hear them in March, keeping the TTPP process on track.
There was an opportunity to improve communications and write a clearer set of rules to help people understand the implications, if any, for their properties, Armstrong said.
Grey District councillor Allan Gibson said: “This whole process has been really bad … the public have grizzled about not being able to understand it, not having enough information, not seeing all the paperwork - is it going to be any better this time around? Because they deserve it."
Armstrong said that was the planners’ intention.
“There will be a two-page letter, setting out what the variation is all about, in plain English. Then all the complicated stuff we have to include will be set out separately.”
Gibson said people’s properties had already been devalued because of the proposed new coastal hazard rules, and they were terrified of losing their properties.
He also challenged the need to look a century ahead, in assessing sea level rise, for a 10-year-plan.
“You only have to have a 50-year rule for building houses so why do we need a 100-year-rule for sea level rise?“
Armstrong said the planners would make the rules as enabling as possible within the limits imposed by Government policy and law.
James Beban, a consultant who specialises in hazards planning, told the meeting councils had to follow national directives on managing the risk of sea level rise.
“This Government is actually very hot on natural hazards, very driven by the insurance sector. If New Zealand does not … try to manage hazards in relation to building and development, reinsurers will look at withdrawing from New Zealand. That is clear cut."
Starting with the Labour government and now the current one there had been a significant move to up the (hazard) planning provisions, Beban said.
But renotifying the Variation, and re -opening submissions to the general public was also an opportunity for the planners to rewrite and simply coastal hazard provisions that had been unnecessarily complex the first time around, Beban said.
Makaawhio chairperson Paul Madgwick said he was thrilled the hearing commissioners had stepped in.
“Hats off to them … it’s really a matter of fairness. When something is going to affect West Coasters so profoundly, we should not be stampeding people into making hasty decisions, when they’re not understanding things and at the same time feeling all this anxiety.”
The TTPP team is aiming to renotify the unpopular variation next week, with submissions open through January, and hearings held next March.
*LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Dreaming of a garden bursting with colour and fresh produce? Shane Fairbairn, Ryman Healthcare’s Landscape Manager, shares his top tips to make it happen. You’ll be set to create a gorgeous, relaxing space in no time - grab your trowel, and let’s dig in.
Click read more for more … View moreDreaming of a garden bursting with colour and fresh produce? Shane Fairbairn, Ryman Healthcare’s Landscape Manager, shares his top tips to make it happen. You’ll be set to create a gorgeous, relaxing space in no time - grab your trowel, and let’s dig in.
Click read more for more information.
Buy any orange Resene testpot 60 ml at your local Resene owned ColorShop in November and Resene will donate $1 to Arthritis NZ!
The more orange testpots you buy, the more will be donated.
Buses can be a relaxing way to get home if you have a seat and enough space. However, it can be off-putting when someone is taking a phone call next to you.
Do you think it's inconsiderate for people to have lengthy phone calls on a bus? Vote in the poll, and add your comments below.
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Kitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for … View moreKitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for dogs and small animals.
Fostering saves lives and helps these tiny babies grow into healthy, well-adjusted adults, ready for adoption. We cover all training and costs. All you need is time and love to spare!
Sign up today and save a life!
Kitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for … View moreKitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for dogs and small animals.
Fostering saves lives and helps these tiny babies grow into healthy, well-adjusted adults, ready for adoption. We cover all training and costs. All you need is time and love to spare!
Sign up today and save a life!
Kitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for … View moreKitten season has arrived, and over the next six months, over 8,000 cats and kittens will come into SPCA’s care. Please help us give these babies the best start in life and sign up to be a foster parent today! It's not just cats and kittens - we are also urgently seeking foster homes for dogs and small animals.
Fostering saves lives and helps these tiny babies grow into healthy, well-adjusted adults, ready for adoption. We cover all training and costs. All you need is time and love to spare!
Sign up today and save a life!
A nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.
The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to … View moreA nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.
The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to Parliament on behalf of riding associations across the country.
The petition, signed by close to 9000 people, asks the government to recognise the vulnerability of horse riders in transport legislation.
“Currently we sit in the ‘other road user’ category and that gives no benefits whatsoever and most critically we are not included in education or road safety-messaging,” McLean said.
Horse-riders were continually dealing with reckless and dangerous behaviour by motorists, she told the committee.
“We get reports from our rider groups of horses being killed: there was one in Reefton, and another in Ruatoki; just two weeks ago a horse was hit and killed by a truck and the rider was taken to hospital."
Riders were also put at risk by aggressive drivers tooting their horns, winding down their windows and shouting, and passing at speed and too closely, she told the committee.
But unlike accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, such incidents involving horses were not captured in the statistics.
When she had asked NZTA for data, said said all it could tell her was that it had issued 13 infringements in 13 years, for failing to take care around a ridden animal or stock.
“When someone comes so close they touch your stirrup, or they hoot their horn as they go past ... it’s the abuse - it’s everywhere."
In a case down south, a truck driver refused to slow down despite hand signals and the rider fell off just in front of him, she said.
She had asked the road safety director for NZ Police to look at providing a ‘tick-box’ for horse-riders in incident reports, Ms McLean said.
“It’s a small, low-cost measure that would allow us to have some proper data, an informed understanding of what’s happening out there on the roads, and in turn some targeted road safety messaging.”
She was motivated to become a safety advocate by her own experience at the age of 25, when she fractured her skull in a near-fatal riding accident on a Kaiapoi road.
“I lost all memory of my childhood; my sense of taste and smell is gone forever. I was in a coma for week, I lost my career and it’s taken me 16 years to fully recover,” she told LDR.
Her accident had not been caused by a car: her horse had shied and thrown her when a piece of paper on the verge moved suddenly in the wind.
But the incident was a grim reminder of what could happen if a horse were startled, she said.
The UK and Australia had recently changed their road codes to give drivers explicit instructions on passing horses.
“It needs to be explicit. We can’t assume people just get it anymore. Common sense is not a thing. We actually have to tell people what we require, to pass a horse wide and slow - wide is two metres.”
A total of 37 organisations were now endorsing her campaign, including police, trucking companies, pony clubs and 10 other regional councils, McLean told the committee.
Transport Committee chairperson Peter Ewen was supportive of Ms McLeans safety campaign.
“In rural New Zealand we have a lot of narrow roads, and we do have riders on them – I would like to think that courtesy is given to those riders."
Regional council chairperson Peter Haddock said he sympathised with the cause but had reservations about riders on state highways.
“I would encourage it on low volume council roads but would struggle to support riding on highways where you’ve got traffic following closely behind.
“It’s difficult to find you suddenly have a horse in front of you and slowly pass it and go from 100kphs to 10kphs. It’s a dangerous situation."
McLean said horse riders did not want to ride on highways, and accidents were happening on 50kph local roads.
She appealed to West Coast mayors and chairs present to consider horse riders when they built shared pathways like cycle trails.
“We don’t need a hard surface, just a bit of dirt or grass at the side.”
The Transport Committee agreed to draft a letter to the national transport authorities, endorsing McLean’s safety campaign but stating its reservations about horses on highways.
Love gooseberries? Share your favourite way to enjoy them. We're looking for our readers' favourite family recipes for this delicious crop. Send yours to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, and if we use it in the magazine, you will receive a free copy of our December 2024 issue.
While it is a fun occasion, fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night has caused much conflict over the years, upsetting our pets and disrupting the sleep of neighbours.
How should we celebrate Guy Fawkes Night? Vote in our poll and share your thoughts below.
I have a outdoor picnic table and chairs for sale need gone asap today please
By local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
West Coasters with mobility problems will soon be able to use a swipe card for subsidised taxi trips, instead of paper vouchers.
The regional council, which administers the Total Mobility scheme on the Coast, is switching from taxi chits to a card … View moreBy local democracy reporter Lois Williams:
West Coasters with mobility problems will soon be able to use a swipe card for subsidised taxi trips, instead of paper vouchers.
The regional council, which administers the Total Mobility scheme on the Coast, is switching from taxi chits to a card system, bringing the region into line with the rest of the country.
More than 900 people on the West Coast are Total Mobility users.
The scheme is 75% subsidised by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), 20% by the regional council and the user pays the remainder, with a cap of $30 per trip.
A staff report to Tuesday's Resource Management Committee said the paper vouchers were outdated.
“The chit system is unreliable, difficult to administer, susceptible to fraud and poses problems for those who wish to travel between regions.”
Staff were proposing a change to a digital system, and contract with three companies to provide software, print the cards, and supply card readers for taxi companies as needed.
It would cost $35,000 to make the change but with NZTA subsidies of $21,500 the set-up cost to the regional council would be $14,354 plus GST.
The council’s ongoing costs with the new system would be an extra $3 per taxi trip - $1159 a year.
Council chairperson Peter Haddock told LDR the West Coast was one of only two Total Mobility operators in the country still using paper vouchers.
“The swipe card system brings us into line with most other regions and it’ll be more convenient for people with mobility challenges - and it’ll save our staff time and be lot easier to administer.”
CCS Disability Action’s West Coast manager, Kelly Blomfield, is welcoming the change.
“Having a card will make it much easier for our people, not having to trek back and forth to the council asking for vouchers when you can’t get around easily to start with.”
The cards had the approved user’s photo on them, making them much less vulnerable to fraud, Blomfield said.
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