mainland press by Mainland Press

THURSDAY may 10 2012

mainland press

Insurance clusters empower residents Tom Doudney

Here she comes: Six-year-old Thomas MacDonald, of Ohoka, brings in a salmon at the Groynes Lakes with a little help. Photo: Supplied

Fish release numbers increase at Groynes FISH & Game have released over 4000 salmon into the Groynes fishing lakes since October last year. Fish & Game hatchery manager Dirk Barr said this was significantly more than they have ever released into the lakes before. The lakes had been ‘buzzing’ with junior anglers and their families this season. Last week, Mr Barr released 300 more salmon into the lakes – the last until October. The releases have occurred roughly every two to three weeks since October. Previously, Fish & Game have only released salmon into the lakes for the Take A Kid Fishing Event and when there had been surpluses from commercial hatcheries, such as the Silverstream Hatchery near Kaiapoi. The fish are hatched at the Fish & Game Montrose hatchery in the Upper Rakaia, where the cold, low-nutrient water provides the perfect hatching conditions. After six months, they are transferred down to raceways on a property owned by the Isaac Wildlife Trust at McLeans Island Road. Here, Fish & Game on-grow the salmon for a further six months before releasing them into the lakes. By the time they are released they are up to 1.5kg. Mr Barr said that while some would be ‘catch and release’, most were taken home for supper. The lakes are only open to junior anglers (17 and under as of October 1).

FOR frustrated Christchurch homeowners struggling with insurance issues, grouping together in ‘insurance clusters’ could be a game changer, an advocate has suggested. Insurance clusters, where residents who live in the same area and who are covered by the same insurance company band together in dealing with their insurers, have sprung up in Ferrymead-Brookhaven and Mt Pleasant in the last few months. An umbrella organisation covering the area from Ferrymead to Sumner, called the Coastal Hills Cluster, has also been formed. Ferrymead-Brookhaven Residents Association chairman David Stringer, who

initiated the concept, said although it was in its early stages, the idea was already a great success and would eventually help weed out the good insurers from the bad. “What we wanted to do was provide a vehicle for residents to be able to share information, because people are very hungry for information, and to understand to get a handle on the process they’re in,” he said. “It became apparent to me that people can be insured by the same insurance company but be at totally different stages of the whole insurance continuum, and they can be at those stages through misinformation or lack of information, lack of advocacy and feeling

totally overwhelmed by the process.” Mr Stringer said that while some insurance companies were doing a very good job of working with their clients, others were doing an appalling job. Insurance clusters would enable clients to compare performance and build a picture of who the good and bad insurers were. He had spoken to representatives from residents associations in St Albans and Parklands who were interested in forming their own insurance clusters. Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Port Hills MP Ruth Dyson have both expressed their support for the concept.

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