Letters to the editor 12 Feburary 2010
Golden Bay Medical Centre non-disintegration
Golden Bay has a rumour mill. We have rumours for anything and everyone. Some stuff is just plain unbelievable, like rumours about Golden Bay Medical Centre.
We would like to assure everyone, these are greatly exaggerated. After 1 April 2010, the medical centre will be under new management and might have a new name. Nelson Bays Primary Health will be in charge. Call for an appointment; come in. It will seem the same, at least, at first. In time, it will get better and your consultations will become more convenient. Health care provision is changing.
Behind the scenes is the unimaginably complicated task of independent doctors transferring business responsibility to NBPH. Some staff may resign from GBMC and be hired by NBPH. Doctors will contract with NBPH or be employees. Golden Bay Medical Centre Community Trust will continue to maintain premises and equipment. Getting everyone together to work it all out is the most complicated problem of all.
Thank you for your support and continued interest during this time of change.
Dr Vic Eastman
World Naked Bike Ride
On Saturday 13 March, Golden Bay can enjoy(?) another so-called organised annual World Naked Bike Ride.
I always wonder where in the rest of the world would people organise something as insignificant as this, unless it is only for fun and/or for some strange way of self-satisfaction in public.
To me it is just legalised flashing on vaseline-soaked bike saddles. Let’s be honest, it does not prove anything and it does not achieve anything. It can just as well be done dressed in bush shirts or wet suits, but I accept not as spectacular as bare bums and boobs in a great assortment of colour, shape and size.
We all know that cars and trucks are the predominant road users, fast and heavy, and most roads are not yet designed or suitable for bike lanes on both sides. It is still bikers beware. It doesn’t matter whether the organisers of this roadshow do this annually, monthly or weekly, they just have to bide their time.
In the meantime keep your shirt on and use protection. ACC probably won’t pay compensation for sunburn, chafed inner thighs or damaged dangling bits jammed in wheel spokes.
John Groen
Tinbum Triathlon
People should be aware that the Tinbum Triathlon will be happening in and around the Pohara Top Ten Holiday Park this Sunday from 9.00am. There will be cyclists on the road for some of the time, so motorists should be extra careful.
We will have plenty of marshalls on duty and the signs will be out but the whole Pohara area is likely to be pretty busy with athletes of all ages for a fair bit of Sunday. The prizegiving at 2pm is likely to make the area around Pohara Sands pretty busy too. We’d be grateful if you took extra care to keep everyone safe. Thanks.
Mark Allinson
Tui Community resource consent application
I was surprised that there was no mention in your newspaper of Tui Community’s resource consent application for 9 dwellings and 4 four-man cabins additional to the 20 dwellings it claims it already has consents for.
Tui Spiritual and Educational Trust (TSET) has every right to make this application and it has been notified for public submissions. However I have grave concerns to learn from Tui’s application of events since the original 1985 consent for 15 dwellings and 5 sleepouts. Since 1985 TSET claimed consents for: a variation allowing 20 dwellings, a 50-person event venue, various commercial premises, a discretionary subdivision, and various water schemes etc. Each has a separate consent with no provision for public scrutiny.
Legally all resource consent applications are to be notified unless there is written approval from adjoining landowners. If adjacent landowners gave written approval, that is their right. However if DOC, as an adjoining landowner, gave written approval to these applications, then shame on you for neglecting your duty to the public. Does TDC not realise its duty to administer its rules and processes in a fair and unbiased manner and recognise there would be public interest in these wholesale departures from land use rules? Let’s have no more “under the radar” resource consents.
Kevin Lovell
The GB Weekly forwarded the above letter to TDC, DOC and the Tui Community.
TDC environment and planning manager Dennis Bush-King responded: The application made by the Tui Spiritual and Educational Trust is made in accordance with the RMA and has been processed as a notified application. It is inappropriate to comment about the content of the application before it is considered by a hearings committee.
Freedom Camping
River Howe’s letter last week made me stop and think about how many of us arrived in Golden Bay and end up living here.
We came into the Bay in December 1965 while we were wandering round NZ with the idea that we would settle somewhere. The family consisted of 3 adults, 3 children and 3 large dogs in a Bedford truck and caravan (not a very desirable group!) We ‘freedom camped’ on the PuPu Valley Road and then under the Devils Boots. We were asked to leave there by friendly Lions who were putting in the picnic area. One man told us about the ‘Golden Cow,’ as the GB cement works was often called, where Alan could get a temporary job (6 weeks which grew to 6 years). Thanks to Bill and May Patterson in Wainui Bay we were able to continue freedom camping for the next few months until we decided to buy a bach in Wainui for the winter. That grew into a house-building project and extended to a very happy 18 years, after which we moved to Clifton and have been here for 27 years.
I’m sure that some people would have looked sideways at us in the 60s but we were made welcome and have had a wonderful life in the Bay. We have fished, developed a mussel farm, had a pottery at both properties, let holiday accommodation, established a salami factory and farmed in a small way.
I hope we have been ‘good citizens’ and I hope that I will continue to accept people who come here to enjoy what we all love about the Bay.
Perhaps we could remember that the influx of retired people (we are now part of that group) has changed the dynamics of the Bay just as much as the other incomers.
Sheila Climpson
The Ballroom Caves
I would like to add to the letters written. Johnny and Heath Strange (brothers) played the music for the various functions held there in the late 1880s-1900s.
Johnny played a concertina (still in family hands) and Heath played an organ, which he lugged on his back, to the Ballroom Caves. That organ is in the museum in Collingwood.
Dawn Strange
Theatre Royal seating
The Golden Bay Community Board has been asked to consider contributing to the fitting out of the restored Theatre Royal in Nelson by the fundraising committee.
The board discussed the request during the meeting of 9 March and resolved to make a contribution of up to $250 towards the cost of a seat. It was also resolved that we advise the community of this opportunity to contribute to the theatre by groups and individuals with an interest in the arts.
It could well be that one or more seats may be able to be purchased through the combined efforts of members of Golden Bay community.
The board recognises that performances held in the Theatre Royal are attended by Golden Bay residents and that this is a worthy cause for our community to contribute to. Donations can be made at the TDC Service Centre in Takaka or by contacting Louise Allan ph 03 544 2750.
Joe Bell, chairperson, Golden Bay Community Board
Continuing Pilates
Have you done a Pilates course with Peni Connolly and you’d like to keep going with a group once a week? No teacher, just a venue. Thursdays from 5-6pm at Community Hall, next to Golden Kids. Start date 18 March. Bring a gold coin for hall hire and your own mat etc. Phone Paddy 525 8745 or see you then.
Paddy Brennan
