Covid-19: Pockets of rural North Canterbury still lagging in vaccination rates
The vaccine roll-out is continuing to lag in pockets of rural North Canterbury.
Ministry of Health data shows Ashley Gorge in the Waimakariri district now has the Canterbury District Health Board’s (CDHB) slowest uptake with 79.3 per cent of eligible residents having received their first dose.
Seven out of 10 of the lowest first-dose vaccinated areas in the CDHB were in North Canterbury, including Pegasus Bay on 80.85 per cent of the eligible population, and Ashley Forest on 81.77 per cent.
Waitaha Primary Health chief executive Bill Eschenbach said there were “pockets of concern” in the Waimakariri district, but they were doing everything they could to reach them.
The Canterbury based primary health organisation uses a multi-faceted whānau ora approach to support people in rural communities, from Cheviot to south Ashburton, who find it harder to access healthcare.
Eschenbach said there were several reasons why some areas were behind, including farmers being too busy to get jabbed, but they were working to deliver vaccines in areas of concern.
“We are on the hard yards now, and we’ve got to think of every opportunity we have to vaccinate.”
This week the CDHB owned JabberWaka mobile vaccination motorhome would hit North Canterbury hot spots, Eschenbach confirmed, in an effort to take vaccinations to the community.
North Canterbury Federated Farmers president Caroline Amyes said distance to vaccination clinics had been an issue at a busy time of year with some farmers having to travel a two-hour round trip in order to get the jab.
“There’s been some complacency... It can be easy to say ‘we’ll do it next week’.”
Waimakariri district mayor Dan Gordon said the council had been encouraging vaccination through social and print media. “And I’ve been very public about getting my two doses.”
Gordon encouraged everyone who can to get vaccinated, saying he fully supported the vaccination.
Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey said it was “great” to see Canterbury catching up on vaccination rates after a slow start, but he wanted the CDHB to put measures in place to keep the momentum going.
He also wanted the CDHB to work with local education providers to get vaccinated by the end of the school year.
“Not everyone will have the time or resources to get to a vaccination clinic so allowing people to book a mobile vaccination over the phone or online could help rates to rise.”
Elsewhere in Canterbury, 10 suburbs with more than 500 people, now have 90 per cent of their eligible population fully vaccinated.
PHOTO: Waimakariri district mayor Dan Gordon getting his vaccination at the JabberWaka in Kaiapoi. The mobile home will be back out in North Canterbury to help increase vaccine rates.
Waimakariri district plan faces more delays amid changing rules
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
Changing Government legislation is causing headaches for council staff, as Waimakariri’s new District Plan is set to be delayed again.
Waimakariri District Council development planning manager Matt Bacon said he was relieved when the last of the public hearings ended last week.
But with final council reports due on December 13, staff will have just two working days to present the final District Plan on December 17. A district plan helps to control and manage the development of the district or city.
‘‘We are working through what it looks like and we will update the council at its meeting on December 3,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘But we will likely seek another extension from the environment minister and the Resource Management Act (RMA) minister.’’
The council first notified its draft District Plan in September 2021, but within months legislation was introduced with new medium density residential housing standards (MDRS).
‘‘We needed to call for further submissions and we had to create a separate hearing panel to consider the plan variations to allow for the MDRS,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘We have tried to merge the process as much as possible, as well as looking at re-zoning and incorporating other new legislation.’’
When the draft plan was first notified there was no National Policy Statement (NPS) for Indigenous Biodiversity, but an NPS was introduced - and then replaced.
The Natural and Built Environment Act came into being last year and then repealed, and then there is the NPS on Urban Development and the Greater Christchurch Spatial Plan.
The Government is now working on more RMA reforms and Environment Canterbury is working on the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement.
And then there is the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, which includes three proposed housing developments in Waimakariri - two of them outside of the future urban development areas identified in the Greater Christchurch Spatial Plan.
All three housing developments in the Bill have been included in submissions to the District Plan, including a proposed 850-home development at Ohoka, near Rangiora, which is also subject to an Environment Court appeal.
‘‘We haven’t seen the detail, so whether it is the same proposals, we don’t know, but they are different processes so we have to just keep doing what we are doing, until we are told otherwise,’’ Bacon said.
‘‘It might just be a timing thing, but we just don’t know.’’
Bacon said delaying the District Plan until new legislation is in place is not an option.
‘‘We are looking at what we can control and having a watching brief, and we will look at transitional timings because we don’t always have to immediately change planning documents when new legislation comes in.’’
Planning manager Wendy Harris said navigating changing Government legislation is a normal part of council planning work.
‘‘If we waited we wouldn’t do anything and we would go nowhere.’’
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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The tiger who came to tea
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