Letters to Editor 25 Sept
Signage for visitors to the Bay
The few travellers who have stayed at my boutique lodge share my opinion about the appalling signage for visitors regarding accommodation and activities for tourists here in Golden Bay.
Bearing in mind many of us are now being “tourist taxed” for enticing more visitors to come to the Bay, it is sad they have difficulty in finding their destinations, specifically remote accommodation facilities like B&Bs, backpackers, farm stays and lodges.
I have approached the TDC on this matter only to be met with a solid wall of bureaucratic regulations and rules that simply do not enhance the visitor requirements in our bay. TDC religiously complies with the transport manual on signage called MOTSAM. This publication has no place in our unique requirements. It is interesting to note that Rotorua and Queenstown, icons of the tourist industry, have thrown MOTSAM out the window and established their own signage policy that is visitor-friendly.
Is there any other tourist operator reading this who will support me in challenging and changing TDC rules on tourism signage? Please contact the writer.
Reg Turner
Starlings in Clifton
Robin Robilliard (GBW, 18/9) notes that thousands of starlings have begun settling for the night near Takaka Golf Club then flying off in large black clouds at dawn, and she wonders why. Well, if they flew off any earlier they’d get lost in the dark! (Groan - sorry.) Thanks to Robin and everyone else who, by planting native trees nearby, have done so much to build up the bird life in the area.
Lloyd Blythen
The Robilliards and the Geens should be commended for their planting initiative in lower Clifton which will undoubtedly attract more birds, but that is only half the story. The other half is the increasing abundance of birds throughout Golden Bay since about 2001. We have seen the same influx here in upper Hamama. I wonder why?
Larry Petterson
Mohua Te Tai Tapu mātaitai reserve
This letter provides an update on the proposed Mohua Te Tai Tapu mātaitai reserve, which includes 5.12km2 in the Kaihoka area and 14.55km2 in the Anatori area.
In early 2008 Te Atiawa Manawhenua Ki Te Tau Ihu Trust, Ngāti Rarua Iwi Trust and Ngāti Tama Manawhenua Ki Te Tau Ihu Trust submitted their mātaitai reserve application to the Minister of Fisheries. The Ministry of Fisheries undertook the required consultation process in 2008, including a meeting on 9 June 2008 with the local community at the Collingwood Memorial Hall.
The views expressed at this meeting and in submissions demonstrated strong local support for the application, and no doubt many anticipated the Minister’s decision on the application by now.
The Ministry is progressing an advice paper on this application for the Minister, while upholding the “first-in, first-served” policy for applications received prior to early 2008 and meeting the requirements for the 24 mātaitai reserve applications received since early 2008.
Without predetermining the Minister’s decision on the Mohua Te Tai Tapu application, the Ministry anticipates completing the advice on it by early 2010. The Ministry appreciates the local community’s patience and the trust’s co-operation throughout the application process.
Randall Bess
Ministry of Fisheries, spatial allocations manager
Bird’s Hill safety
I am told that the best way to get through to the NZ Transport Authority is to write a letter to the editor. Here is my submission about making Bird’s Hill more user-friendly.
I traverse Bird’s Hill by bike three or four times a week. As I cycle past the bicycle sign, I whack the button that controls the light as hard as I can whilst still in motion, but this is usually not enough to light up the sign. Can the design be modified to be more user-friendly? How about a touch-sensitive button? And how about lengthening the time that the sign remains lit to accomodate travellers with loaded packs, trailers, and even children, all of whom may require more than two minutes to traverse the hill?
Also: When all that time and effort - and money - was spent clearing the brush on Bird’s Hill, why wasn’t another 2 feet cleared on either side to allow for a cycle lane?
Michel Rose von Dreger
Shrubs stolen from Selwyn Street reserve
I do hope this letter reaches the eyes of those for whom it is intended ie the low life who has now stolen the 13 corokia shrubs I planted at different times on the Selwyn Street reserve. These shrubs were planted in an effort to beautify the reserve and relieve the starkness of the black walkway. They in no way impeded the passage of people walking along the reserve. Also they were shrubs, not trees, and were never going to interfere with the view. The removal of these shrubs would appear to have been quite vindictive and premeditated as they have been removed on three separate occasions - always under cover of darkness. The matter has been reported to the police.
If anyone should notice a garden now displaying a recently planted collection of corokia shrubs I would be grateful if you would contact either me or the Takaka Police.
I’m afraid the whole incident has left me completely disillusioned, disappointed and depressed.
Colleen Orange
Developments at Joan Whiting Rest Home
I am writing as the new chairperson of the Joan Whiting Trust to keep the community informed of significant recent developments.
The board has been approached by a group of local business people and Joan Whiting supporters interested in maintaining the rest home at its present location. The group has outlined a specific proposal and the board will be meeting with the group on 1 October for detailed discussions.
I do not wish to raise any false hopes. There is no guarantee that this proposal will safeguard continued operation of the Joan Whiting Rest Home in Collingwood, but the board will certainly listen to what is proposed with an open mind – and you will be kept informed.
None of this means that the Joan Whiting Trust board is walking away from the integration proposal being put together by the IMG. They have promised full public consultation and, like you, I await that with considerable interest.
Finally, if you’re the sort of person who wants to make a difference in our community, the Joan Whiting Trust board is looking for two new trustees. It will be tough but not boring - we live in interesting times! Please contact me for more details on 524 8613 or <cmitson@gmail.com> with any questions about the Joan Whiting. And remember, we now have a public forum before each meeting, usually the third Thursday of each month.
Chris Mitson, chairperson, Joan Whiting Trust
Starblaze
Takaka Primary School’s Starblaze was another sellout show with months of practice and lots of effort on the part of kids, staff and helpful parents. They all deserve a bouquet! Well done!
Billy Kerrisk
Raw milk products
I’m writing to clarify an article a few weeks ago (GBW 11/9)regarding raw milk products regulations, soon to change.
Be aware that the only raw milk products allowed under the new regulations are low-moisture, hard cheeses aged a minimum of 60 days. Raw milk and high-moisture cheeses made from raw milk like chevre, cream cheese, feta, bries, camemberts, etc will not be legal. Raw milk yogurts, kefirs, cultured and fermented milks are still forbidden for sale as well.
Currently NZ Food Safety Authority regulations make it very costly for small producers to operate. I can’t imagine how stringent and costly it will be to have approved and audited facilities making raw milk cheeses. Instead, I wonder if the rule change will only open the door for inexpensive, imported, raw milk cheeses?
Mark Skatrud
Street flooding in Takaka
Regarding Paul Marcussen’s letter (GBW 11/9), I forwarded it to the TDC engineering department along with photos I took during the July rains. Councillor Riley has done likewise.
At the Draft LTCCP meeting in Collingwood, in response to my query, Jeff Cuthbertson told me that underground pipes serving Commercial Street were installed by Golden Bay District Council before amalgamation and are of insufficient diameter to cope with storm water also.
Drainage inlets installed by Transit NZ since then were not connected through to the pipes for that reason, so we’ve had drainage gratings going nowhere for a long time. I hope for a timely resolution as Mr Cuthbertson also said his department would welcome the opportunity to resolve this.
TDC appears to have been under the misapprehension that the main problem was at the Reilly Street intersection. However my photos show excess water just north of the pharmacy and a watery width in excess of three metres at the turn in, off Commercial Street, to the library for example.
A friend in her eighties told me that on that day she wore sandals to town. She knew she would have to wade to get to shops. This was during winter.
Karen Brookes
Thank you to Tom Bickley and family
On behalf of all the organisations in Takaka who have the use of low-cost travel over the Takaka Hill, around the North or South Island, and within Golden Bay, whether they be sporting, cultural, musical, elderly, or young; I would like to say thank to Tom and the late Noreata Bickley, and in recent years, Michael, for low-cost travel and in some cases, no cost. Your bus and coach service has been top class. Thank you once again for the service you provide.
Bernal Reilly
Integrated health facility
As the NZNO organiser responsible for members in the Bay and as a potential resident I feel I should comment and bring to the debate some areas I see which may be of concern to the community.
Integrated services look to be an efficient way to deliver health care in the future and I would be comfortable with this concept should the NMDHB commit to continue to fully fund this concept and remain the employers of staff.
I have recently been involved with the transfer of staff from the publicly funded Motueka Community Hospital to Jack Inglis Friendship Hospital. Many staff there took redundancy or a lump sum equalisation allowance of two years. Many staff have chosen not to work for the new employer when wages were lower than the closest competitors.
Recruitment of staff in Golden Bay has always been challenging. The community would not expect to get the medical profession on the cheap, so why would they expect nurses and caregivers for less than their colleagues are being paid as DHB employees?
I urge the Golden Bay community to think carefully before it steps away from a fully funded public model and burdens the community with the extra ongoing expense and responsibility for its health services. Fight for your public health services for they may never regained.
Jackie McGrath, organiser,
New Zealand Nurses Organisation
Accountability. To whom will the proposed Golden Bay Community Health Trust be accountable?
Trusts have no membership and may have no accountability other than to their deeds, which they can independently determine. Joan Whiting Memorial Trust is required under its deed to hold a public annual meeting, but resolutions from the public present have no status, the meeting is only a means of communication, not of accountability.
The open letter from the Integrated Management Group (GBW advertisement 28/8) includes a structure for the trustees of the proposed Golden Bay Community Health Trust. This comprises two DHB representatives, one sitting TDC councillor, one iwi representative, one community board member, two representing the Golden Bay community, and up to three co-opted experts.
Of the 10 positions, only two are directly representative of the community, with no indication of the means of their appointment or election, and the council representative could be controlled by TDC policy. The GB community is accordingly in a minority on the trust.
So the key questions are what provisions are there in the draft deed to ensure it is a community trust, and why was the draft deed not available for comment?
Peter Foster
Your correspondent Heather Cole (GBW Letters 18/9) asks why nurses are not represented on the interim management committee. In establishing the IMG we sought representation of the organisations that were either providing or had a key stake in the existing services. We also sought to keep the group size to a minimum. We didn’t look for representation of the health professions as such.
I can report that the nursing perspective has been central to developing the integrated model. We have been grateful for the enthusiastic participation of nurses in a number of the working groups. The model we have developed for the new service is one of a primary health care team, focused on illness prevention and health promotion, where nurses have a key role in patient care.
Carolyn McLellan, on behalf of IMG
Whitebait sock nets
Well done, Tony Cottle. I also feel it is time for some changes to regulations in the whitebait fishery. This fishery is the only one controlled by DOC and it is the only one over which there is no limit on the size of the catch and no licence needed to sell them. Consequently they are sold tax-free. There are many regulations on how, when and where they may be caught, and all sorts of nasty things can happen to one breaking these regulations. There is not much point in landowners going to a lot of trouble and expense to protect the habitat if, before long, there may not be any fish to inhabit it.
In The Nelson Mail on 15/9 DOC says the native fishery is at risk through various factors, not the least of which is overfishing. In other pieces in The Nelson Mail preseason, DOC was asking people only to take what they need each day. Surely that is like putting a jar of lollies in front of a group of children and saying, ”You can have as many as you like but don’t eat them all.” Do other people feel it is time for some control to be exercised on catch size?
Denny Gillooly
DOC has not the mandate to unilaterally outlaw the use of sock nets on any specific river. To do this, there must be an “Order in Council” to change the whitebait regulations, as for any lawful regulation, as applied by Parliamentary Statute.
If the ban is in the interests of conserving whitebait for future generations, the anti-sock net lobby should perhaps look at less radical methods for achieving that aim. It is in all our interests to conserve the species for present and future generations.
I would suggest bringing the rest of New Zealand under the umbrella of the West Coast Whitebaiting Regulations with such measures as: Shorter season - 1 September to 15 November. Three-metre screens (plus net) instead of 6 metres including net. No screens outside of the net. No water between the screen and land. Upper areas “pegged” to limit fishing areas. Closed waterways to all whitebaiting, for breeding purposes - there are currently 21 closed rivers (or areas) in the Coast fishery - none that I could see outside of that region.
Also needed is an increased DOC enforcement presence to ensure the regs are adhered to on all rivers, and to come down on those who persist on breaking those regs, such as distance away from nets, fishing under bridges, using more than one net etc.
Jeff Woodward
News content in The GB Weekly
I, amongst others, am becoming increasingly concerned over the “news” content of The GB Weekly in recent weeks. Where have all the community articles disappeared to? It seems to have been taken over by the politically minded and those who have only one opinion (their own) and look out next issue if we disagree! And so it goes on and on.
I am the first to stand up for free speech and the right to an opinion, but how many times do we have to pick up The Weekly only to find it no different in copy to the previous four weeks’ content! I appreciate that some people feel strongly enough to pay to have their opinions and statements put in print and that helps this tabloid to survive, however surely there are more community stories to cover aside from 1080 and Golden Bay Health issues.
I encourage and challenge The GB Weekly to source out community news items, which I consider was their original intention, and maybe their readers will return to it, instead of making comments such as “it’s not as good as it used to be” and “can’t be bothered reading it anymore!”
Gary Clough
Response from The GB Weekly: We presume that Gary is referring to the letter pages of The GB Weekly, as we have not written any articles on 1080 in a very long time; nor on the integrated health project for several months; though we have printed three whakaaro columns which were written by Drs Eastman and Clark and Alexia Russell on the integrated health project.
The GB Weekly welcomes feedback and suggestions for articles in our paper. We also enjoy publishing letters from our readers on a wide range of topics.
Homeless
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Do you have sincere interest in living a peaceful life with the knowledge that our home is severely threatened? Join a deep dialogue of sharing how we feel. Tuesday 6 October, 5pm, Aubergine Café. Download Home free: www.home-2009.com
Joanna and Ro Piekarski
