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The Sun
Wednesday April 20, 2016
JPs’ long service recognised Story and photo by Cathie Bell More than 300 years of service to the community has been recognised with a ceremony at the Marlborough District Council. Ten Justices of the Peace and their friends and families gathered with Marlborough mayor Alistair Sowman to receive certificates recognising they had been JPs for more than 30 years. Those recognised were: Malcolm Dick, Alan Furness, Robert Goulter, David Hall, Barry Holdaway, Gavin Kerr, Jim Mears,
Linette Randle, Pamela Saunders, and Rosemary Wells. Linette and Pamela were unable to attend the ceremony. Marlborough is wellserved for JPs, Alistair says, and he noted former MP Sir Douglas Kidd had clearly been active in recruiting JPs as most at the ceremony had been tapped for the role by Sir Douglas. While the roles are voluntary, they carry great responsibility, he says. JPs witness statutory declarations, sign official papers, and some sit in court
on traffic and other minor offences. Several of the JPs spoke at the function of how rewarding they found their work, especially when they were able to help people in need. RIGHT: The group of JPs celebrating 30 years’ of service, pictured with Mayor Alistair Sowman. From left: Malcolm Dick, Alan Furness, Rosemary Wells, David Hall, Alistair Sowman, Jim Mears, Alistair Boyce from the JPs’ Association, Barry Holdaway, Gavin Kerr, and Robert Goulter.
State of our environment a benchmark for region By Cathie Bell Marlborough’s latest State of the Environment report provides a benchmark of information that changes and environmental effects of development can be measured against. Last week, the Marlborough District Council published the report, called “Our land, our water, our place”. Rangitane iwi spokesman Richard Bradley who began the official ceremony in the council chambers on Friday morning says the land is the health of the people. “It is our land, our place, our responsibility to make sure we
Peter Jerram. have something to share with future generations.” Speaking to an audience of guests from the wine industry,
pastoral and marine farmers, environmental groups, and Green MP Steffan Browning, Marlborough mayor Alistair Sowman says “It’s our first ‘report card on the region’, following up the last 2008 report. “With all the updated information we are now building up a picture of the environmental change that has occurred since our first report 20 years ago,” says Council Environmental Science and Monitoring Manager Alan Johnson. “The contents will help to inform the community discussion of the often-controversial environmental
issues and it will be a fantastic resource for teachers,” he said. Council’s Environment Committee chairman Peter Jerram says environmental sustainability is the key to a successful and prosperous economy. “What this report tells us is that our population and economy are growing, and that growth provides challenges to all of our natural resources.” The report includes many success stories, showcasing the good work done by organisations and individuals in Marlborough, he says, but it also underlines the challenges the region faces with
soil conservation, climate extremes, water quality, natural hazards, biodiversity loss, invasive species, overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution of coastal waters. “It should help people understand the outcome of the review of our resource management plans which will come out as the updated Marlborough Plan in a couple of months’ time. “I hope people look at this revised Plan in the context of what is set out here because it explains the environmental changes that we are trying to address in the Plan changes.”
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