Amalgamate Or Pay A High Price
It's come around again - the Wellington Super City scheme or the Hutt Valley Not So Super City and Wellington City-Porirua-Kapiti Not So Super City alternatives.
Auckland amalgamated its seven councils into a single unit in 2009 and there was a concerted effort to do likewise for the Wellington region in 2015.
We have gotten over the Auckland shock where a lot of people had considered it a kind of failure to now when it has been deemed a substantive success. The chief finance person in the Auckland CC said in 2019, amalgamation had saved Auckland ratepayers two billion dollars. And judging from that the current savings would be around three billion dollars.
Most people living in other parts of our region have strong links to Wellington city. In so many ways I feel proudly bound to Wellington even though I have never lived there past a few days since my first year at college. So the city of Central Government and of Government departments and housing most of the things that attract me from outside the boundaries of my home, presents no problem to me in being part of a Wellington Super City: second largest city In NZ and 500,000-strong and takings the learnings from the Auckland model to not make their initial mistakes and errors of judgement.
Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.
If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?
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62.5% Summer
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36% Winter
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
What word sums up 2024, neighbours?
If 2020 was the year of lockdowns, banana bread, and WFH (work from home)....
In one word, how would you define 2024?
We're excited to see what you come up with!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
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