Remarkable West Coast restoration completed
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The restoration of the 100-year-old home of a remarkable pioneering photographer who documented West Coast mining life has been formally opened.
The $100,000 project undertaken by the Department of Conservation has breathed new life into the home of Jos Divis who lived in the cottage from the 1920s until his death in 1967.
Members of Divis' family, including his great niece, travelled from the Czech Republic to formally cut the ribbon on Friday, March 15.
The celebration marked the culmination of a complex restoration by DOC over the past two years which brought the fragile wooden structure back from the brink - amid renewed interest in Divis' photographic legacy.
Born in 1885 in what is now the Czech Republic, he emigrated to the West Coast about 1909, first living in Blackball then following an itinerant life as a mine worker for several years before becoming a fixture of Waiuta.
There Divis worked in the large underground gold mine and documented the community in a startling record of the town which continues to lives on in his images.
As a keen amateur photographer, Divis, documented the mining workplace in often startling photography.
This often included the photographer himself posed within his photos as an early form of the 'selfie' by deploying self timer technology of the day.
Divis was widely published in the national newspapers until the late 1930s.
He also documented the demise of Waiuta as a town when the mine suddenly closed in 1951. At the time it had been the largest underground gold mine of its kind in the South Island.
Divis' remarkable legacy of thousands of photographs is still being discovered amidst a resurgence of interest in his legacy with three current exhibitions including an opening at the National Library in Wellington this week.
Simon Nathan, the maker of a recent documentary on Divis, said the historic legacy of Divis is pure gold.
"One of the things that has been fascinating is, I keep on finding Jos Divis' photographs," he said on Friday.
This included Divis' descendants recently sharing fresh material buried in a family album of his early days on the West Coast, Nathan said.
Divis' work is also contained within many hidden personal albums of families with Waiuta links.
While there is an extensive archive of Divis' work in the National Library of NZ, along with that of Waiuta families links, his commercial post card work was also beginning to come to light, Nathan said.
World Heritage Site evaluator and DOC heritage adviser Paul Mahoney said he did not believe Divis' legacy had been given enough credit yet in New Zealand.
"I don't think there's anyone else in New Zealand who has documented a work place and a community in such a way. He was away ahead of his time," Mahoney said.
Heritage NZ deputy chief executive Nic Jackson paid tribute to DOC and the Friends of Waiuta who in an unique partnership had ensured the fabric of the Waiuta Tohu Whenua site continued to be enhanced, namely through the Divis cottage restoration.
"Here at Waiuta we can say a picture paints a thousand words, with thousands of pictures taken by Jos of life on the West Coast," Jackson said.
The Waiuta township site is one of six Tohu Whenua sites on the West Coast.
While Waiuta is now a ghost town the images taken by Divis of a town which was "a hive of bustling life" was unique, Jackson said.
"Much of the town's physical life has gone but Jos brings it to life for us."
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Coast council LTP submissions ‘fairly low’
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Just six of 25 submitters to the West Coast Regional Council 2024-34 long-term plan (LTP) will appear at a hearing in Greymouth on Tuesday.
The proposed 10 year plan proposes an average 27% general rates increase in 2024-25 to partly fund a proposed budget of $25.2 million for the next financial year.
The other option in year one - to increase general rates by 44% - was based on rates alone funding.
However the preferred option in the proposed LTP is to reduce the full annual budget impact on ratepayers in the first few years by borrowing.
Engagement in this LTP has been relatively low compared to the previous two LTP processes in the past seven years.
A report for Tuesday's hearing notes previous LTPs received "moderate to high" submissions.
The current 2021-31 LTP received 621 submissions while the previous LTP in 2018 saw 73 submissions.
"Compared to the 22,000 rating units on the Coast, it's a fairly low turnout," West Coast Regional Council chairperson Peter Haddock admitted on Monday.
But he believed the low submissions in 2024 was a positive reflection on what the current council had moved on in the past year.
"It shows clearly that people understand that there has been clear change at council for the better.
"No-one wants rates increased but I think that it shows that change was necessary.
"The council was in a pretty broken state and it needed money spent on it right across the board."
Haddock cited the council's less than fit IT system, and accounting system linked to the "rates error" late in 2023 as an example, aside from the governance upheaval.
He said the LTP strategy was to invest in staff and systems to ensure "a well oiled machine".
At the same time the regional council general rate, compared to the three district councils was "relatively low," he said.
People still needed to watch their targeted special rating district levies, above the general rates and uniform annual general charge.
Significantly the proposed LTP ushered in special rates for Westport residents (a 539% bump) for the first time to pay for the already budgeted share of their Government co-funded $22.9m flood resilience scheme.
Yet there was apparently little kickback on it, Haddock said.
"I think it shows that people accepted that they want that for the betterment for their community.
"It's unfortunate it does cost … let's not forget they are being subsidised."
Haddock compared the future benefit for Westport to that of the Greymouth Floodwall scheme via special rates for 30 years, "for the betterment of the town".
Under the proposed LTP "balancing the budget" and whether council should shoulder the Predator Free Te Kinga project were the two main consultation topics.
Ratepayers were also asked to comment on the LTP financial and infrastructure strategy, policies, and user fees and charges.
Comment was also sought feedback on the planned transfer to its ownership of the Grey District Council owned Greymouth Floodwall, and the Westland District Council-built Havill Wall protection bank at Franz Josef.
Under the first general rates increase option all properties in the Grey District will pay the following per $100,000 of capital value:
* General rate, a $14.70 increase from $50.26 to $64.96 in 2024-25,
* Emergency management levy increase from $10.17 to $4.58,
* The one district plan (Te Tai o Poutini Plan) decreases from $15.22 to $3.99 in 2024-25,
* The Uniform Annual General Charge in 2024-25 increases $36.31 to $192.59.
It means a Grey District dwelling worth $300,000 will see their total general rates bill increase to $443.70 in 2024-25.
This is made up of:
* General rate, $194.89
* Emergency management, $4.27
* Te Tai o Poutini Plan, $11.96
* Fixed UAG charge, $192.59
That excludes any special rating district levy, such as for the Greymouth Floodwall area.
$700,000 mistake left to fester at Coast council for three years
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A billing mistake that saw a debt of just over $701,000 sit on the West Coast Regional Council books for three years should never happen again, according to the head of its finance committee.
Council this week congratulated itself on the recovery of long standing debt in the past few months, the ongoing rebuild of its finance management system, and a pending report back on four internal audits driving the rebuild.
However, Risk and Assurance Committee chairperson Frank Dooley (pictured) said the error made back in 2021, leaving a $701,718 debt on the council's books, still needed to be cleared up through the council's annual reporting.
Caused by a "clerical error", the debt was indicative of the council's previous dysfunction where a billing mistake was left to fester instead of being proactively followed up, he said.
"It was a double up in an invoice.
"You just don't follow up three years later," Dooley said.
A public outcry in late 2023 spurred a flurry of activity by council to sort out its rates and debt systems after some ratepayers were overcharged by up to 300% in the first installment for 2023-24.
It has already adopted a new system to chase up external debt and internal audit reviews are currently underway into:
* cash handling
* credit card and fuel card expenditure
* procurement (capital and operational)
* rates setting and charging processes.
Chief executive Darryl Lew said the findings should be reported directly to the committee by June.
He said it reflected "a significant body of work" with new actions out of it needing to align now with the 2024-34 long-term plan and a planned revision of council's committee structures, he said.
Councillor Peter Haddock said council's commitment to do a fix up had been quite a resource commitment when it was "running low".
But it was essential to rebuild the organisation.
Councillor Peter Ewen said that was significantly helped by changes at the top in the past year, with the chair replaced and a new chief executive.
"A lot of the progress that has come about is because we now have communication between the chair and the chief executive.
"It's made a hell of a difference," Ewen said.
On May 16, Dooley told LDR the $701,718 dated back to a claimant being invoiced twice and the amount then being carried over in council's debtors' ledger.
He said there had been no inquiry until recently about it when it became clear the amount was disputed.
The "mistake" had made a $700,000 impact on council's bottom line.
"The impact of that $700,000 reversal will probably be in the annual report."
Dooley said at this point he was unsure if that particular mistake could have been repeated.
"I don't really know but that's why you have to drill down debtors on a regular basis - that's when you pick it up.
"Errors have to be investigated and corrected, and that hasn't been happening," he said.
Council was now working with its auditors to build new systems including ensuring accurate rendering of rates debt.
"We're starting to drill down, asking are they accurate or not?
"I've got a lot of confidence now … we're putting in place the appropriate procedures and controls so we can manage this on a day to day basis and make it effective."
Dooley said part of the issue had been inadequate staff numbers - despite some question around an increase in staff at council.
"If you don't have those people doing the right job, it creates inefficiencies, and creates a massive cost to the ratepayers - every time we make a mistake it costs.
"I'm really pleased about the progress."
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