West Coast council gives green light for bridge protection work
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
The green light has been given to a raft of projects around the West Coast, including bridge protection work.
In August, the West Coast Regional Council granted 12 non-notified resource consent applications.
This included plans by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to protect the State Highway 73 Otira River Bridge, west of the Otira Gorge.
The river will be temporarily diverted to build protection structures around the eastern bridge abutment and the central pier.
Down river, KiwiRail gained consents to undertake earthworks, remove gravel, and divert water courses on the Otira and Taramakau rivers, to maintain protection work for the Midland Railway, as far as Jacksons.
In Buller, NZTA gained consent to secure the lower Buller Gorge section of State Highway 6 near Westport, at Island Creek, to protect the eastern abutment of a bridge on the creek.
Also in the lower Buller Gorge, at White Cliffs, the agency will undertake protection work at Clearwater Creek, including installing a weir in the creek bed, underneath and downstream of the bridge.
Oceana Gold sought permission to discharge seepage and leachate mine water to a tributary of Progress Creek from a pond, part of the management system for the mothballed Globe Progress Mine, near Reefton.
Buller District Council gained consent to dispose solid waste in a landfill at Maruia, including leachate from a refuse landfill where it may enter water.
The regional council also granted five applications to change conditions on previously granted consents.
This included Westland Mineral Sands at Okari, Cape Foulwind, being allowed to do earthworks within 5m of a drain.
Others related to gravel extraction and an application to change a whitebait stand design on the Taramakau River.
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!
⚠️ 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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61.7% Summer
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36.7% Winter
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1.6% Other - I'll share below
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