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With universities starting up last week, so brings first-time flatters trying their hand at cooking for the first time. In 2020, 27% of a household’s weekly budget was spent on takeaways so it’s no wonder that cooking is becoming a bit of a lost art.
Alongside sewing and knitting, what other … View moreWith universities starting up last week, so brings first-time flatters trying their hand at cooking for the first time. In 2020, 27% of a household’s weekly budget was spent on takeaways so it’s no wonder that cooking is becoming a bit of a lost art.
Alongside sewing and knitting, what other vital skills do you think are at risk of being lost?
Share your thoughts below for the We Say You Say column in the local paper - write NFP if you want your comments excluded.
If you need more forms or accessibility formats,visit www. census.govt.nz, or call 0800 236 787 for help.
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From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A huge moment for student safety.
That’s how Ashburton Christian School principal Tim Kuipers reacted to the news his school is finally getting a footpath.
“Safety is the number one thing and because of a footpath more parents will be … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
A huge moment for student safety.
That’s how Ashburton Christian School principal Tim Kuipers reacted to the news his school is finally getting a footpath.
“Safety is the number one thing and because of a footpath more parents will be confident to send their students walking and biking rather than drop them off,” Kuipers said.
Out of its $4.19 million of Three Waters Better-Off funding, the Ashburton District Council has $900,000 for additional new footpaths.
This will see an additional 2262m of footpath, and the associated kerb and channel, at seven locations as well as a footbridge on Allens Road in Ashburton.
One of the new footpaths is a 482m stretch along Albert St, from Trevors Rd to the Ashburton Christian School.
The school sits just outside the Ashburton town boundary and currently students walking to school have to use the grass verge or the risker road edge.
“In the last three years I’ve had about five calls of concern about incidents on the road, Kuipers said.
“It’s particularly difficult in the wet of winter for students.”
With a roll of 258 and growing, Kuipers said they had about 50 walking or biking to school but sees that number drastically increasing with a footpath improving access and safety.
“I don’t know by how much but it will certainly increase.”
An increase in leg-powered transport – walking, biking and scooters - will also reduce the number of cars heading to and from the school each day, he said.
Since the school opened in 2009 the footpath has been on the council’s radar and Kuipers said the school has put in three requests in the last five years for one to be installed.
It was raised at the board meeting on Tuesday night and he was preparing another appeal only to learn of the council’s decision.
Councillor Russell Ellis said he was pleased to see the footpath to the school included with “the development that is going on now at the side of town”.
“The safety of those kids and not having to walk on the road when the grass is wet, I think this one is overdue,” Ellis said.
Deputy mayor Liz McMillan said the almost 700m footpath along Line Road in Methven would be well received by the Methven Community Board “because it’s something they had wanted to see for quite a few years”.
The footbridge on Allens Rd will provide a safe link between the existing footpath and a scheduled 520m extension in the 2023-24 work programme.
There are no footpaths for Rakaia or Hinds in Better-Off funding but roading manager Mark Chamberlain said there was plenty in the forward work programme.
In 2023-24 there are 208m of new footpath in Rakaia and 250m in Mt Somers, while there are about 760m of new footpath in Hinds and 419 in Rakaia earmarked for 2024-25.
Better-off new footpaths:
Wakanui Rd (Trevors Rd to end of Strowan Fields subdivision)
Trevors Rd (Albert St to Wakanui Rd)
Albert St (Trevors Rd to Ashburton Christian School)
Dolma St (end of existing to Line Rd)
Line ad (Methven Chertsey Rd to Dolma St)
Tinwald Westerfield Mayfield Rd (Tarbottons Rd to Lagmhor Rd)
Lagmhor Rd (end of kerb to Tinwald Westerfield Mayfield Rd)
Allens Rd footbridge at Mill Creek.
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From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Councils will need approval from the government department handling the three waters reform before they can adopt the 2023-24 annual plan.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) involvement is a new step and not a layer of scrutiny previously … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Councils will need approval from the government department handling the three waters reform before they can adopt the 2023-24 annual plan.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) involvement is a new step and not a layer of scrutiny previously required, Ashburton District Council chief executive Hamish Riach said.
“It is based on the requirements of the recently passed Water Services Entities Act, and is aimed at DIA oversight of council’s decisions during the lead up to the new Water Services Entities becoming operational on July 1, 2024.
“So as I understand it, we need to seek DIA’s approval for the adoption of our annual plan, and DIA will presumably be looking at the manner in which we are treating our three waters assets to be appropriate.”
A DIA spokesperson said the oversight, under the Water Services Entities Act, is to ensure decisions by local authorities do not significantly impact the water services entities.
They will look to see if councils are delaying necessary projects or stockpiling debt for when the assets, work programmes, and debt transfer to the new entities next year.
The area the DIA will be focussed on is the Ashburton council’s decision to defer some renewals to allow for additional road funding and keep the rates increase as close to that forecast in the long-term plan as possible.
“Council has added $1m to unsubsidised roading because of concerns at the condition of our network," Riach said.
“Council has also agreed that, given the historic difficulties of completing all our annual capital work ambitions in the water area and an amount of work brought forward when we did the CBD upgrade, we should reduce the anticipated amount of budgeted work in the 2023-2024 year and reduce our funding of depreciation to match that reduced spend.”
The addition of the roading money and the reduction in three waters renewals “work in opposite directions for the overall rate increase but do impact different groups of ratepayers differently”.
From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Delays in processing consents is frustrating the start of the Fairfield Freight Hub and will likely push its completion into 2024.
Wareings Group director Mark Wareing said in November that they had hoped to start construction by February.
At … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Delays in processing consents is frustrating the start of the Fairfield Freight Hub and will likely push its completion into 2024.
Wareings Group director Mark Wareing said in November that they had hoped to start construction by February.
At the start of March, the $14 million project is still waiting for resource consent as Environment Canterbury (ECan) battles with a backlog in processing applications due to staffing challenges and the increasing complexity of them.
“It’s been three and a half months now but we know ECan is under the pump at the moment,” Wareing said.
As frustrating as the wait may be, Wareing said the process will take as long as it takes and that “the project will not start until we have all four consents granted”.
ECan consents planning manager Aurora Grant said staff were processing the four resource consent applications for the Fairfield Freight Hub.
“We need to take the time to fully understand the potential environmental effect of this resource consent application,” Grant said.
“We want the best outcome for the environment and the community.
“We will endeavour to process it as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
The delays with the resource consents will likely cause a delay in delivery of the project.
Once the consents are approved, constructing the rail hub is expected to take around 12 months to complete.
The project is a triparty commercial development led by the Wareing Group (which wholly owns Fairfield Freight Hub Ltd) with KiwiRail and the Ashburton District Council, and is being constructed on a Talley’s site - the former Fairton freezing works.
The council is contributing $2.3m to help fund the relocation of the rail freight yard from the town centre to the purpose-built facility at Fairton which will be covered by money from the Three Waters Reform “Better Off Funding” support package.
The Government is also chipping in with $2.5m from Waka Kotahi’s NZ Upgrade Programme.
If you need more forms or accessibility formats, visit www.census.govt.nz, or call 0800 236 787 for help.
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From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Further safety improvements are being considered in Methven where students from three schools share one pedestrian crossing on a state highway.
Methven school principals and council representatives met recently with Waka Kotahi staff to discuss … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Further safety improvements are being considered in Methven where students from three schools share one pedestrian crossing on a state highway.
Methven school principals and council representatives met recently with Waka Kotahi staff to discuss potential safety improvements at the town’s only pedestrian crossing across State Highway 72.
Methven Primary, Mount Hutt College, and Our Lady of the Snows (OLS) primary schools are all accessed off SH72 which runs right through the town, but there is only one safe crossing point.
“We were just looking at options of improving safety on that particular piece of road,” Methven Primary principal Sue Furndorfler said.
“It’s a busy little place in the morning and after school.
“It’s not just school traffic, in summer there is a lot of farm traffic and then there are buses and tourists in winter.”
A major step will be Waka Kotahi proposing to introduce a 30kph variable speed limit along State Highway 72 along the stretch outside the three schools, a move Furndorfler fully supports.
Students from the three schools, with a combined roll of about 800, all utilise the pedestrian crossing point, and from it there is an almost 400m walk to the OLS entrance to the south.
Where the variable zone sits is yet to be determined.
Another potential solution is adding a kea crossing, where a school patrol controls traffic with extendable stop signs at the pedestrian crossing, but it requires a commitment of volunteers to run it before and after school.
“We haven’t investigated how that would work,” Furndorfler said.
“There are the three school’s students that use the crossing so it would be about the schools deciding how we would manage it in conjunction with Waka Kotahi.”
Deputy mayor and Methven resident Liz McMillan said the meeting was held at 3pm on a school day so the Waka Kotahi representatives could witness the crossing in action.
“It was good to get them on the ground to take a look, and now we will wait and see what they come back with,” McMillan, who also chairs the council’s road safety committee, said.
From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Ashburton mayor Neil Brown is not convinced doubling the budget for district promotion would be money well spent as it “isn’t working”.
“We’ve been telling our story for 15-odd years and people still don’t know about what we have got … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Ashburton mayor Neil Brown is not convinced doubling the budget for district promotion would be money well spent as it “isn’t working”.
“We’ve been telling our story for 15-odd years and people still don’t know about what we have got here,” Brown said.
He was weighing in on the proposal to double the district promotion budget, and a 0.4% rate increase that went with it, following the Ashburton District Council taking district promotion in-house.
The proposal didn’t get enough support and the council will continue with a budget of $197,000 in the 2023-24 year.
The council will need to “do what we can do” with the existing budget Brown said and will take the time for “a complete refresh” on district promotion ahead of the long-term plan (LTP).
Brown wanted to assess how it will work before throwing more money at it.
“We are not doing it right and we need to have a complete fresh look.”
When the council decided to take district promotion in-house earlier this month, it was also proposed the budget return to pre-Covid levels, from $195,000 to $375,000 per year, but councillors wanted to see more evidence of how that increased budget would be spent before committing to it.
The budget, funded 50% from the general rate and 50% that targeted on businesses in Ashburton, Methven, and Rakaia, was cut in 2020 when the Covid pandemic had closed international borders.
A business case presented at the budget workshop on Wednesday failed to convince the majority to increase the budget.
With support wavering for the full amount, deputy mayor Liz McMillan proposed a revised increase of $85,000 to cover some of the priorities outlined in the business case.
That too failed to garner support, a 5-4 majority against it.
That leaves the budget at $197,000, a figure economic development officer, Simon Worthington, said “doesn’t go very far at all”.
With borders reopening and tourism numbers improving, he believed an increased budget was needed to target that tourism growth as the current promotion “looks old and tired” compared with other competing districts.
There was agreement district promotion was critical but the majority against the budget increase couldn’t justify it without taking the time to understand the scope of the role the council has only just taken on.
The budget could still be increased in future but not before the councillors get together and workshop with key stakeholders what the district needs from its district promotion so that the dollars make sense.
Brown proposed that work takes place in time to consider a revised budget in next year’s long-term plan.
What they said:
Tony Todd
: Fully supported the increase as “in the scheme of the overall budget, it is quite minute” and it needs to show Ashburton is more than a pit stop.
Leen Braam
: Supported the increase and pointed to the Balmoral Hall being “an old building that doesn’t do much for the community” yet it had $464,000 allocated in the budget.
Richard Wilson
: Against the increase as “now was the time to review” district promotion before committing to a bigger budget without confidence in the direction.
Lynette Lovett
: Opposed the increase as there were “too many aspects to look at if we want to do this correctly”.
Russell Ellis
: Wanted “more information than we have at the moment” before considering an increase.
Phill Hooper
: Against as he had questions about the district promotion direction and was mindful of the overall budget picture.
From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
An extra $1 million for roading to respond to community demands and a budget reshuffle signals a 5.9% average rate rise in the Ashburton District.
Faced with five options ranging from 5.9 to 8.8%, the councillors opted to include an extra $1m of … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
An extra $1 million for roading to respond to community demands and a budget reshuffle signals a 5.9% average rate rise in the Ashburton District.
Faced with five options ranging from 5.9 to 8.8%, the councillors opted to include an extra $1m of unsubsidised road funding but kept the rate rise down to 5.9% by reorganising other work.
Chief executive Hamish Riach said the reshuffle essentially removed about $1.3m out of the budget for the inclusion of the $1m on roading.
The reshuffle means some water and wastewater renewals will be delayed that were unlikely to be completed in the work programme anyway and a reduced depreciation to match the reduced spend.
The revised draft budget has an increase of about $2.65m on the 2022-23 budget, but only an $881,894 increase what was proposed in the long-term plan (LTP), which had forecast a 5.5% rise.
Mayor Neil Brown said the extra $1m for road maintenance was not for fixing potholes, as that was already covered in the budget, but was for “building new road” by contributing about 4km of road rehabilitation on top of the existing 10km subsidised by Waka Kotahi.
A large chunk of the increase is related to three waters compliance and is work the council has no choice but to complete, including $200,000 to develop water safety plans.
Other factors impacting the overall budget picture were a proposed reuse shop at the council’s resource recovery park being pulled from the annual plan and will be addressed in next year’s LTP.
The proposed addition of an extra $180,000 for visitor promotion did not get enough support.
An additional $60,000 for CBD landscape maintenance was added, while the Balmoral Hall upgrade has been included.
The proposed $464,000 refurbishment, which is a loan funded project and has no impact on the rates rise, may not go ahead as it requires further investigation.
There will also be an increase in parking fees at Eastfield, going up from $2 to $3.
A draft annual plan will come back to the council by the end of March and as it will be close to the LTP there is no requirement for consultation.
Councillor Russell Ellis said with the historic low turnout in consultations “it’s not worth the effort” or the approximate $25,000 cost to consult.
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From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
A playground at Baring Square East was never asked for Ashburton, council chief executive Hamish Riach says.
Riach was responding to claims from a member of the community that suggested councillors had removed a playground to cut costs from the … View moreFrom local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
A playground at Baring Square East was never asked for Ashburton, council chief executive Hamish Riach says.
Riach was responding to claims from a member of the community that suggested councillors had removed a playground to cut costs from the redevelopment of Baring Square East.
The square is being upgraded alongside the $56.75 million new library and civic building, Te Pātaka a kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka.
“Since consultation first commenced on the building in 2016-17, the community has never signalled outdoor play equipment on its wish list for this area,” Riach said.
“[A playground] was never part of the original plans and not raised in community feedback.”
The consultation document included a summary of the plan to rejuvenate Baring Square East – a place that has never featured a playground, and the council didn’t receive any request to add one, so they didn’t.
Riach said the square upgrade will include a one-way slow street, a civic plaza area, raising the water feature, upgrading seats and planting, and retaining existing parts of the square such as the clock tower.
“The area was already used for some community events and council wanted to support more use of the public space.
“The aim was to retain well-established features and build on the legacy of the past, with an eye to the future.”
The plan retains grass areas for “passive recreation and gathering” and there will be a shaded outdoor courtyard area off the ground floor of the new building.
Inside the new library, which will be triple the floor space of the current library, is a performance space with tiered seating and the children’s library, with niche areas, Riach said.
There was a provision of outdoor play equipment for children installed nearby on the East St green as part of the recent CBD revitalisation, Riach said.
There is scope to add some playground equipment in future if that is what the community wanted.
“Any changes to the plan already adopted would need to go back before councillors for decision,” Riach said.
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