Letters 3 June 2011
Young talent impresses
Friday night I was coaxed away from a quiet evening at home to the Onekaka Hall with the promise of some great live music. It was a stellar night of local-kids-done-great with “Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill” rocking the house supported by local bands The Nightmares and The Black Spots. The hall and the audience, decked out in a Dios los Muertos Mexican theme, were festive and playful. What a Golden Bay happening! I appreciate living in a place that will come out in force for the locals! Oh yeah, and, girl drummers rock!
Aralyn Doiron
Freedom camping
I am not a troublemaker by nature - I have never even had a speeding ticket. But I do sleep away from home sometimes. I like to get an early start when tramping, I sleep near favourite fishing spots, I have slept in a spot to see a particularly stunning sunrise.
In my van I have water in jerry cans, a fold-away sink, a jerry can for dirty water. I have a composting toilet for when in populated areas, a shovel for when not. A simple cheap hygienic and environmentally acceptable solution.
But not a legal one - converting to meet the standards would cost more than the vehicle is worth, and create something not as suitable for my purposes - and I could not empty a chemical toilet into my composting loo at home.
And how do I camp when cycling, or using any other non-motorised transport?
I have no desire to be a lawbreaker, but the new local law, along with its national cousin, is turning me into one. What else to do except surrender a harmless traditional way of life that my family has enjoyed for generations.
Ian Astbury
I have concern that in processing TDC’s Freedom Camping bylaw, only a minority of TDC councillors could see important deficiencies.
TDC’s reply to submitters has important faults: There was no evidence of claimed “public demand”; there was not effective consultation. Submissions against the draft bylaw outnumbered those in favour by about two to one, and at the hearing there was no response to opposing submitters’ arguments; the decision process was in breach of Local Government Act by not considering “benefits and costs”.
The faulty process failed to consider: The costs of implementing and monitoring; the numbers of non-compliant vehicle occupants who would be lost to tourism; The numbers of compliant vehicles; compliant vehicles having an incentive to pollute, to save time and expense of going to dump sites; the proportion of vehicles which pollute.
The bylaw does nothing to educate or prevent. The bylaw is about punishment after the crime, not prevention.
The overall effect can be expected to be loss of tourists who cannot afford compliant vehicles, and more care by those with compliant vehicles to avoid being caught avoiding dump sites.
The bylaw must be repealed, and attention given to prevention and to bylaw process.
Peter Foster
This letter is in response to the one by Paul Marcussen on freedom camping and chemical toilets. According to the headline article in The Press on 11 April addressing the problems associated with chemical toilets being used since the earthquake, chemists say Bronopol, an active ingredient in the most commonly used toilet additive, “breaks down into low levels of formaldehyde, at a rate depending on temperature and the acidity of the liquid containing it”.
The WHO classifies “formaldehyde as a class one carcinogen.” These additives also contain “A1 Super blue with the chemical glutaraldehyde. That is highly toxic to fish, moderately to birds and is banned in most countries.”
Heavy metals in sewerage sludge come mostly from industrial contaminants, and the products that get poured down the drain. My point being that it is not sustainable to turn the food we eat into a toxic waste, when it is so easy via thermophilic composting to feed these nutrients back to the soil, and thus complete the bio cycle.
I look forward to the day when we start working more with nature, and are respectful of the essential cycles of life, in everything we co-create.
Rita Davies
Multipurpose community facility
The 2009 study investigating if there is a need for a multipurpose facility gave close to 500 individuals (stakeholders, venue owners, venue hirers and every fifth household) in Golden Bay the opportunity to directly inform the research. On the basis of well-documented, qualitative and quantitative methods we concluded that approximately half of the population was against a project of the kind Mr Blasdale has since instigated. Only 23% were explicitly in favour of a new multifunction centre (16% uncertain). Almost all of those in favour wanted a project in town, not at the Recreation Park. This is not a joke, and Mr Blasdale will ignore it at the peril of his project.
Instead of providing trustworthy arguments for his own case, Mr Blasdale tries to disqualify the 2009 study and the findings he does not like. He is obviously ignorant about methods for collecting reliable statistical data. As clearly stated in the report, the snap poll was primarily a “publicity stunt” to raise awareness of the study, and not a reliable scientific method to learn about the opinions of the GB population in general. Nobody can know which segment of the total population the market-goers represent, and the snap poll is therefore not suitable to make robust inferences about the general population. Only a fool, or a trickster, would put greater weight on the snap poll than the other well-proven methods that were used.
Bjarne Vandeskog
Business Cluster Workshop
I was fortunate to be able to attend Fiona Newell’s Business Cluster Workshop in the weekend. The potential for Golden Bay small businesses to band together, share resources and either present themselves “over that Hill” or attract more business here, are big.
It was exciting to get down to how this could be made to happen as we got ideas and planning on the table and one step forward in development.
Fiona’s request for locals with skills in marketing, finances as well as distribution and manufacturing also received a positive response. Creating teams with all the skills needed to get product and services to the world was the name of the game, and as part of that process Fiona has been requested to run a further cluster workshop TBA.
I recommend that any small business interested in collaborating to “work smarter” in growing your personal, as well as our regional, economic development, come along and share in the opportunities. For those interested in finding out more Fiona can be contacted on 03 539 0266 or 027 232 2213.
Lynne Udell
The Gibbs Hill Challenge
Just when you thought it was safe to hang up the running shoes and park the bike for winter! Sorry, but the Gibbs Hill Challenge is only 10 weeks away – Sunday 14 August,l to be exact. So diary in the date and get on with the training.
It’s a 23km bike ride from Takaka to Wainui, a 21km run around the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park and then, to wind down, another 23km ride back to Takaka. The keen ones will do the entire event on their own, while the (sensible?) others will do it as a team consisting of two to five members.
Entries will open up near the end of June with Golden Bay people having a two-week preferential booking period before it opens to all. We have a maximum of 70 and last year we reached that.
Great prizes up for grabs – Grant Knowles carvings for 1st man and woman and 1st team, a beautiful Peter Geen picture for a Golden Bay person and another fantastic weekend getaway at Sans Souci.
A further advert in The GB Weekly will advise you how and where.
We do need a few more helpers on the day so if you can help then please us know.
For any further info please contact Wouter or Wendy de Maat at 525 8199 or email w.demaat@clear.net.nz
Wouter de Maat
Ligar Bay baches
It’s disappointing but not surprising to read that TDC CEO Paul Wylie is threatening Ligar Bay bach owners defending their properties with TDC legal costs (GBW 27/5).
If Mr Wylie is concerned about TDC costs he should pay back the outrageous $41,349.53 paid to him as “relocation expenses” when he took up the job in Richmond.
TDC advised Ligar Bay bach owners in 2009 that a review of their licences could happen. Council then asked the Community Board for a recommendation. Following community consultation, the board provided a thoughtful recommendation, which council ignored.
Matters the board took into account included the fact that the baches are on surplus road reserve. The land is not needed for roading purposes and people can pass through the area on road or beach without the land occupied by the baches. TDC had also granted a lifetime licence for a nearby bach on Esplanade Reserve.
Clause 8 of the licence deed states: “...the Licensee may, and shall be required within such time as the Licensor shall determine, remove…” This certainly leaves room for discretion.
The opinion of Mr Heal, a barrister with considerable local government legal experience, is more informed than that of Mr Wylie.
Joe Bell
Imprisoning our elders?
After studying the Takaka Hospital extension site plan, I am left with some very disturbing concerns re the rest home section. Shut away as it is amongst the service buildings, possibly with a high earth bank along the highway for a view, these questions arise:
Does the placement of the rest home reflect our society’s attitude toward elders in our midst in 2011?
Has age now become a “disease,” that our elders require hospitalisation?
What will the inmates (oops..”residents”) do all day besides search for patches of sunlight amongst the shadows of the crowded buildings?
Can the people who have helped build our community during their working lives look forward to being shut away there in obscurity for the rest of their days?
With more compassionate planning, could the rest home be sited in the sun, across the carpark, in a building they could proudly call their home?
I implore you, dear reader, to think about these questions. They do concern you personally -- it may be your home one day.
Alaria Vockler
Families needed for documentary
Calling all solar/wind, off-the-grid families: we need you. If you have children and live off the grid and are willing to be apart of a documentary showcasing how New Zealand families live in a variety of sustainable ways, then please email Emma on <info@oursdvd.co.nz> and we’ll send you more info.
Filming takes place sometime between September and the end of November. We’d only need to be with you for a few hours. If you have organic gardens/farms or other sustainable things going on as well, then even better.
Claire Webster
TDC environmental educator - Golden Bay
All Greywolf’s mineral applications rejected
You’re probably already ahead of me on this, but my understanding is that Greywolf’s withdrawing all its applications was rather like the person who resigns just before it’s announced that they have been sacked - all the applications were rejected, or were about to be.
Congratulations are due to the community and to media for discovering and exposing the back story behind Greywolf. How about in the future the Government forces a company to establish that it is bone fide and exactly who its backers are before it is allowed to submit applications?
My other comment is that the end of Greywolf’s applications is not the end of minerals interest in our region. We will need to consider future applications too, and the smart thing to do is maintain the momentum to clarify the community’s stance. My own sense is that the region is the best placed in New Zealand to adopt a position that mining occurs only when there are no sustainable alternatives, and only in the places and with methods that cause the least environmental and social damage.
Kevin Hague
Green Party MP
