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The Sun
Wednesday January 14, 2015
Sun readers have their say... with the WORD on the Street. Q: Do you shop at the butcher or the supermarket and why?
Amy Moore Blenheim
Dave Oliver Blenheim
The butcher because my friend works there.
Both about equally. I go to the supermarket for convenience and the butcher for quality meat and the personal touch.
Subdivision jumps major hurdle By Jacob Page Colonial Vineyard Ltd chairman Mark Davis says there is relief more than anything after a ruling that allowed a planned subdivision get through another hurdle. Marlborough Aero Club Incorporated and New Zealand Aviation Museum Trust had been battling for five years to have the Burleigh housing development stopped. Following an appeal hearing in Blenheim High Court last August, Justice Lowell Goddard dismissed the appeal in a decision released prior to Christmas. The area in question is more than 21 hectares of flat land planted in sauvignon blanc grapes, framed by by Richardson Avenue, New Renwick Road, and Aerodrome Road. The plan was to build 230 homes on the site. Two of the major concerns were the impact it would have on Omaka airfield and if residents would complain about the noise. However, the ruling dismissed these as issues. “It’s been frustrating that things have been so drawn out, it has cost us a lot of money but this is a major step forward in our plans,” Davis says A reappeal process expires at the end of the month and Davis says if there are no further appeals, rezoning work of the land would start soon.
Gerald Grocott Napier I go to the supermarket but I go to the butcher more often. I prefer the personal touch and the different cuts of meat.
Jenni Nicholls Blenheim I shop at the supermarket. I don’t eat that much meat personally.
Jeremy Claasen Blenheim The supermarket. It’s so much easier. It’s like fishing - why would you go when you can go to the supermarket?
Peter Chapman Blenheim A bit of both. If I’m serious about the variety of meats I’ll go to the butcher, but if I want mince for that night I’ll go to the supermarket.
Fowl love match By Adam Poulopoulos They locked eyes from across the plain, and it was love at first sight. In one of the stranger liaisons, a male pheasant, Pecka, and a female bantam, Ruby, have produced chicks on a Waihopai Valley farm. The unlikely duo produced half a dozen eggs and two chicks at the end of last year, and the bantam is currently nesting a clutch of about a dozen more, with two having already hatched. Farm owner Katrina Ferris says she thought the eggs had been fertilised by a bantam rooster on the farm which had since passed away. “A couple of months after the rooster died they hatched and we thought ‘how could they stay fertile for that length of time?” She says the chicks display many pheasant traits, including speckled chests, lacy feathers and a more upright posture than a bantam. The pheasant/bantam mix is rare, and often the chicks produced die shortly after birth. On the Ferris farm the chicks are eating, drinking water and have shown no observable health defects. Katrina says she is amazed they have not only produced healthy offspring,
Saxon Ferris with Pecka the pheasant and the two chicks.
but become a family. “They might mate, but for them to produce and then become a family unit is quite extraordinary. “The pheasant has become so protective of the chicks – he’s with them all day.” The unit has been dubbed the ‘Phan-
tom Family,’ a cross between pheasant and bantam. Ruby was given to Katrina’s son, Saxon, as a present by family friend Samantha Lawrence, while Pecka was bred by neighbour Norm Phillips and allowed to roam free.
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By Jacob Page The Burleigh Park playground is likely to be without its swings and slide at least until the end of the month. The swings and large yellow slide were taken in a daring act in the middle of December and while there were hopes of finding the slide, it still remains elusive. Marlborough District Council reserves and amenities officer Robert Hutchinson says they will give it to the end of January to see if items can be relocated before replacements are sourced. “We have had a couple of
pieces of information come through from the public including a yellow slide for sale on a Trade Me-like website but they have come to nothing at this stage.” Burleigh Park is one of the most used playgrounds in the province despite it being built in the 1980s. Hutchinson says while the swings will be an easy piece of the playground to replace the slide would be trickier. He says a mould may have to be sourced for it. Hutchinson had stated previously it could cost $4000 to replace.