Letters 12 August
Gibbs Hill Challenge
This Sunday 14 August the Gibbs Hill Challenge will once again be cycled and run. The event involves cycling from Takaka Primary School, leaving at 9.15am, along Rototai Rd to Cassidy’s Corner and then along Abel Tasman Drive to the Wainui car park.
From here participants run over Gibbs Hill to Totaranui, then around the coastal route back to Wainui, followed by the final cycle leg along Abel Tasman Drive and Meihana Street back to Takaka Primary School.
All cyclists are aware that the roads will still be open and that normal road rules will apply, but we ask that all drivers be extra alert that day, especially from Pohara onwards where the roads are narrow and winding.
Mountain bikers, if you are in the area that day, please remember that the runners may not hear you coming, so please be extra cautious.
Thank you all for your consideration.
Wouter de Maat
(on behalf of the organising committee)
Ecofest film
I was fortunate to sit in on a preview of The Economics of Happiness which is to screen as part of Ecofest Week at the Wholemeal Café on 17 August at 7pm.
This is the most impactful message - showing the link between global business practises and destruction of independent village economies - that I’ve seen. By the time the production has played through there is no room left for denial. I strongly urge all thinking people to attend this screening.
Karen Brookes
Ageing in Place research
Golden Bay Workcentre Trust is currently carrying out the “Ageing in Place in Golden Bay” research project to find out what makes it easy or difficult for people in our community to get old in the place of their choice. Over the last three months we have interviewed 25 service organisations and 37 residents who have told us about the issues that influence their ability to “Age in Place”. Based on this information we have created a questionnaire to find out how common these issues are in the general population. Originally we wanted to send the questionnaire to all residents aged 55 and older and through press releases we informed the community about our intention. Due to privacy issues and the diversity of the population it proved impossible to construct an address list of all residents over 55. We therefore changed our method and have sent out two copies of the questionnaire to every second household.
If you receive a letter with “HOUSEHOLD” on the envelope, please open and fill in the questionnaire. There are two questionnaire forms in each letter and we would appreciate if the two oldest members (over 18 years of age) of the household fill in separate forms.
Dr Bjarne Vandeskog, principal researcher, The “Ageing in Place in Golden Bay” community research project
Acknowledgment
I would like to use this medium to thank Joe Bell for all his thorough research and contributions he provides to this community. I am always deeply impressed by his ambitious investigations and his non-judgmental and neutral comments. Without you, Joe a lot of people living here would be in the dark about what is going on. I very much hope you are standing for election as a successor for Noel Riley. I think that hardly any other person in Golden Bay has such a good understanding about the ins and outs of local politics and is happy to share this knowledge - even voluntarily!
Joe you are amazing, and acknowledgement to you is due now!!! Please, keep up the great work.
Astrid Gluth
Rugby World Cup
Re Peter Bridgwater’s letter regarding the Rugby World Cup.It is a privilege that our country hosts the Rugby World Cup. Being broadcast to millions puts our beautiful country on show. It also creates many jobs and the revenue introduced will help many businesses.
I can’t wait for the Rugby World Cup to commence. I am excited about the atmosphere created, and seeing the expression on my children’s faces when they see the matches live will be magic.
Your elderly friend believes people attending have a low level of education. I have a degree. I have been to many games of rugby and played for 30-odd years and have never seen rum drunk. As for rape and pillage, we do not live in the Middle Ages! To blame rugby for child abuse, wife beating and binge drinking is crazy. I would love to see your statistics on this. What is your problem with women playing rugby? We are in the 21st century. One must assume you were around when women got the vote!
I agree that soccer is The Beautiful Game. I also find the same about rugby and tens of thousands of Kiwis would agree. I wonder if you or your elderly friend have ever been to a live soccer match? Ever heard of “football hooligans?” They hurt people intentionally and cause destruction. And that’s when they win.
Our nation does not need your negative attitudes when our “beautiful country” is on show to the world. Go to a live game, you may enjoy it!
Buddha Childs
By-election
After considerable thought I have decided not to accept nomination to stand in the Golden Bay Councillor by-election. Thank you to all who encouraged standing.
My heart is in the community board model and for it to be the best it can. I will continue to advocate for this.
Tasman communities have a wonderful opportunity to strengthen rural representation at present. The Draft LGC reorganisation proposal will guarantee decision-making delegations to community boards for six years.
“Delegation” means someone doing work that would otherwise be done by someone else. The work is already budgeted for. Resources need to move to those doing the work. Delegation needs to be effective and efficient and at no more cost, or less cost, otherwise there’s no point.
Studies show that responsive governance is as close to individuals and communities as possible. School boards of trustees are an example of local governance.
TDC has a 22-year history of withholding board delegations. The Tasman Mayor’s recently reported comment: “TDC wants to trial delegations for six months” confirms there is no guarantee for meaningful delegations by TDC.
Submissions on current proposals to the Local Government Commission, info@lgc.govt.nz or PO Box 5362, Wellington close on 19 August 2011.
Joe Bell
Trial of after-hours triage nurse service
In response to Mr Swanson-Dobbs’ comments re this trial, as someone who has had the misfortune to have to use this trial service twice recently, I would urge anyone similarly affected or who is concerned about this trial to give their opinions to the medical centre <gbmedical@gbmc.org.nz>.
The service involves a call centre [in Auckland] which in one of my cases kept me on hold three times. The call centre then decides if you can talk to a nurse who after many in my view pointless questions agrees to ring the doctor on duty. The nurse then rings you back to tell you they have rung the doctor and to say the doctor will ring you! Most of us do not ring a doctor after hours lightly and often all we need is advice and reassurance from someone who is known to us and vice versa. Let’s hope this trial will be abandoned and we can go back to our previous system, which seems to be much more geared to the needs of the patient and less open to mistakes through misunderstood messages. This triage nurse service seems impractical for a rural area and may actually increase 111 calls when such may not be necessary.
Anne Gentleman
GB family health centre
A question for our IMG. There are rumours flying around that there is a an alternative plan to the one that we see in the hospital entrance and the surgery waiting room. This plan is said to show smaller rooms and some rest home rooms with the ensuites removed. Please would a member of the IMG comment publicly as to whether this is true or not. If true, when are the public going to be shown the revised plans and when will there be an opportunity for public input? Thank you.
Anne Gentleman
If you are one of the many who have serious concerns about new reduced services at our medical centre (now operating under the PHO) and proposed plans to build an expensive health facility out of town, you are not alone. The self-appointed group that is pushing this plan with the help of a well-paid “public relations” wordsmith, did not conduct a health needs assessment study for Golden Bay and is, instead, pushing its limited views.
Primary health professionals are amongst the many who have expressed concerns about this huge, misguided expenditure, and received the same shiny rhetoric in response.
A project of this magnitude should provide real benefits for more than the doctors. Doctors now enjoy a salary instead of getting paid for every patient they see, and the doctors no longer have to answer the phone for after-hour emergencies, as that service has been contracted to a nursing service. The initiators of this takeover have looked after themselves, but what about the patients and rest-home residents?
As no meaningful consultation has occurred, we feel compelled to give the public a chance to register their disapproval by signing a petition that is being circulated as of today.
Victoria Davis
Response from IMG: The Integrated Family Health Centre design floor plan has been revised on an ongoing basis over the past couple of months based on public input and feedback from the Open Day, ongoing meetings of the Clinical Leadership Group, the Value Management Workshop attended by all parties involved in the project and updated costings from the quantity surveyor.
This has resulted in the need to trim the size of the building and ensure it operates as efficiently as possible. The Value Management workshop meant everyone came up with compromises which include reducing the number of consulting rooms by one, providing larger but shared ensuites for some rest home rooms, centralising the living and dining areas into one larger space, a number of other modifications to reduce costs.
The aim of these changes is to ensure the facility will be of a size and design that is affordable and will be approved by the Minister of Health.
The Interim Management Group has agreed to the proposed changes and the property owning trust Golden Bay Community Health – Te Hauora O Mohua Trust is using these revised cost estimates as the basis for seeking finance and other funding.
All of the clinical group, the property trust trustees and others involved recognise any building design is an iterative process that will continue to change as the project proceeds.
“Affordability is key to ensuring this project occurs,” says trustee Linda Sanders.
“We can’t have everything we want so compromises have to be made to ensure the project is viable. This is a process that happens with any reasonably significant project. We’re trying to provide a building that people can work and live in that will be much better than what we’ve got at the moment. This is the only way we are aware of that rest home facilities will be retained in the Bay.”
Get Smart Youth Conference 2011
From 18 to 21 July, members of the Impact Youth Trust attended the Get Smart youth conference in Nelson. We had been fundraising since last year with garage sales, raffles and sausage sizzles. We also had huge support from our community.
There were many great speakers at the conference that were educational, extremely funny and captivating. Entertainment included local Nelson talent, a band from Australia, female hip-hop dancers, DJs, and Australian Idol winner Stan Walker. The trip was a huge success and we all had a great time away with many of the youth having life-changing experiences. It also gave youth from all ages the chance to interact in a safe alcohol- and drug-free environment. We would like to thank all the people who contributed towards this trip. It would not have been possible without the support of the community.
I would like to also thank our youth leaders, Carol, Teresa and Jason. Without their encouragement and organisation this trip would have never been possible. On behalf of everyone involved in the Impact Youth Trust I would like to say a huge thank you for the time, effort and dedication you put into the youth of this community every day.
Jess Steer (volunteer)
Rental properties in Golden Bay
Thank you for the article about rental properties in the Golden Bay area in last week’s The GB Weekly.
I was pleased to see a prospective landlord highlight the poor conditions of many rental properties. If only all landlords were as responsible as this person, who said she would be uncomfortable expecting children to sleep in cold, very damp bedrooms.
Sadly, hundreds of thousands of children around New Zealand live in substandard rental properties. Cold, damp housing contributes to poor health and educational outcomes for kids, and costs parents in unnecessarily high power bills.
The Green Party recently released a plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014. It includes setting minimum standards for rental properties to ensure that rental homes are warm and healthy for children. This would improve living conditions for thousands of children, as well as lowering power bills, leaving more in the hand for parents to provide the essentials.
Our child poverty plan would also address another element highlighted in your article – making Working for Families fairer, meaning about $60 extra per week for the 140,000 poorest families in the country.
The Green Party’s full plan to bring 100,000 children out of poverty by 2014 can be found here: www.greens.org.nz/endchildpoverty
Kevin Hague, Green MP
Skating
Bring along your skates for a fun couple of hours on Sunday 14 August (Sunday 21 if wet), 2pm to 4pm in the Takaka Library car park. If you’ve got some spare skates tucked away please bring them along if you’d like to share them around. There will be some music to help you along even if you think you’ve forgotten how to skate. We hope to do this every few weeks and look forward to a Roller Derby team from Motueka coming over in the future for some demo laps.
Dave Myall,
GB Recreation and Way2Go co-ordinator
