Market Day toilet stink
By local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:
Market Day organiser Carol Johns doesn’t want to see Ashburton's East St lined with portaloos for her annual event.
The former Boulevard Day market took place on South Canterbury Anniversary day on the last Monday in September for almost 50 years and Johns said was “never, ever been a portaloo in site’’.
Now, though, the toilet requirement appears to have changed with Johns’ event.
“I’m quite happy to monitor the toilets throughout the day and supply my own toilet paper, but I’d hate to see a market day up East St with portaloos stuck outside people’s shops.”
The annual Boulevard Day event along East St was abandoned in 2022, after being held in the Ashburton Domain in 2021, but the Johns-run Ashburton Market Day stepped in to fill the void. It needed council approval after the road closure request met opposition from CBD retailers.
The council approved the closure but placed several conditions on the event.
Council compliance and development group manager Jane Donaldson said the event did not comply with all of its conditions.
“There were issues around the lack of toilets which, following a review of the event, will be something that all event managers holding major events in the district will need to address,” Donaldson said.
Johns had been advised by the council she required portaloos to service the large crowds, but proceeded without them and the public toilets ran out of toilet paper.
“It’s something that just needs to be managed, to have more toilet paper. But I’ve already received an email, saying that unless I have portaloos this year I will not be given permission to run the event,” Johns said.
Event organisers were also required to be responsible for managing the waste and recycling of their own event, so the council waste bins had been covered over, Donaldson said.
Johns brought in Eco Management to handle it but it “didn’t work”.
“Within a very short time it was a disaster.”
With the waste management sites at each end of the three blocks of the market, the crowds simply piled the rubbish on top of the plastic covered bins, Johns said.
She plans to supply her own bins this year and her road closure application for September 25 has been notified, with public objections need to be lodged by August 28. The council will then consider the request on September 6 to decide if the event goes ahead again.
⚠️ 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 ❤️
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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61.9% Summer
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36.6% Winter
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1.5% Other - I'll share below
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
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