Golden Bay Community Board meeting
At the meeting on Tuesday this week the following matters were discussed:
Salisbury Bridge. Clem Randall spoke about the Salisbury Bridge, saying that, in his view, it has been dangerous for many decades. “Money has been spent to make it safe but it didn’t succeed,” he said. “The money for the proposed upgrade should be spent on a substantial model. It could be kept in the museum and brought out on special occasions for people to see. Then the bridge can be classified as a killer bridge, made inaccessible to humans and removed when it deteriorates sufficiently.”
Board member Carolyn McLellan said, “I’d hate to see the Salisbury Bridge close just because of a few hoons who ruin things for everyone else. It’s a wonderful working model and the majority of people respect the fact that it’s restricted to two people at a time. I don’t believe we should be shutting down the bridge because hoons take their lives in their hands. TDC’s engineering department recognises what a great asset to tourism and link to history it is.”
Swimming pool. Bernie Kelly volunteered his time to further investigate the viability of a covered and heated swimming pool in Takaka. He had met with Stuart Machin, the deputy principal at Golden Bay High School, to see how the school feels about the issue.
“Should we find out how many people would use a covered and heated pool?” he asked. “Our population base of only 5000 may mean that a covered and heated pool is not viable and the money could be better spent on something else.”
Community boards. Alan Vaughan congratulated the board on its efforts in bringing about a change of heart from council on the devolution of a certain amount of responsibility.
“If the Southland District Council can run that number of community boards with that amount of autonomy, it obviously does work,” he said.
Mrs McLellan said, “The mayor has spoken to the media about streetscaping as an example of something that could be delegated to community boards to decide, but it’s a bad example because everyone else has had their streetscaping done - except Collingwood. We’ve helped to contribute to all that through the general rate and now ours will be covered by a targeted rate.”
Devegetation. Mr Vaughan complained about the clearance of roadside vegetation on Bird’s Hill.
“It is wholesale slaughter of the roadside vegetation and it’s absolutely disgusting,” he said. “It has done very little to improve visibility. It’s just uglification of this Bay. We need to know what is going to be done by contractors before it happens.”
Rototai public toilet. Board member Leigh Gamby asked whether there had been any thought by council about the provision of a toilet in the Rototai Reserve. TDC community services manager Lloyd Kennedy said that the board should send through a request for next year.
Catchup. Councillor Noel Riley provided a comprehensive catch-up on matters he has been involved with. He described the LTCCP process as “a lot of very expensive crystal-ball-gazing”.
He reported that the Golden Bay’s civil defence organisation now has a working generator at the TDC service centre that works and operational civil defence radios throughout the Bay. “Also we can now break into National Radio on 98.2 and tell people exactly what’s happening in the event of an emergency,” he said.
Council is in the process of checking the Southland District Council’s effective policy on cattle effluent.
The Takaka central business district will become dog-free and the signage will be improved.
The project solving the problems caused by stormwater in Commercial Street needs to be brought forward in the plan. “We have the capability to solve this,” said Cr Riley.
Neil Wilson
