CAMBRIDGE NEWS | 1
THURSDAY OCTOBER 31, 2024
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OCTOBER 31, 2024
Not on my doorstep… By Mary Anne Gill
Meet Glenys Miller. The 72-yearold feisty Cambridge farmer, mother of two, grandmother of five and great grandmother to three and three quarters is angry. So mad she told the person to “get lost” who knocked on her door two to three years ago to talk about plans for a quarry next door. Except those were not the actual words the determined pocket rocket said and there was nothing polite about the message either, she recalls. If it is possible she is even angrier today than she was then
because she has been reading up on the application by RS Sand Ltd to establish and operate a mineral extraction activity – a sand quarry – less than 200m from her front doorstep. The quarry would extract up to 400,000 tonnes of sand a year, depending on demand, for approximately 25 years. Glenys knows about change. A decade ago, she and her husband Bruce – who died in July last year - had to sell part of their 52ha farm to the government for the Waikato Expressway. Now it is 47ha with the motorway running down the
middle of it. They had to move their house north, further up the farm, and leave the gardens that Glenys had spent decades developing. The Hinuera bricks which had been on the house are stacked in her driveway on the fenceline border between her place and the site of the quarry. She had planned to sell them but never got around to it so now they’re gathering weeds. The house has burnt orange bricks now and a spacious deck looking out onto her new garden and the pine trees further back where the quarry operation will
Glenys Miller, left front, sits on the pile of Hinuera bricks that used to be on her house and are now on the boundary line between her property and the proposed quarry. Pictured, from left, back row Kaden Emerson, Tylah Willcox, Jason, Kathleen, 11, Carl, Kierly, 11, and Ella Miller, 13, Madisyn Willcox, 16, Claire de Geest and Kevin van Tilburg. In front, Glenys, Haley Miller, Steven Willcox. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
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be. It is here where the extended Miller family gathered on Sunday to discuss their plans to oppose the quarry. Their biggest concern is the silica dust the quarry will produce and the impact on the family’s
health. Tylah Willcox – Glenys’ granddaughter who lives in South Waikato - is pregnant and might think twice about visiting, says Glenys.
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Senior platform set for revival Discussions on mapping a way forward for Waipā’s seniors will dominate a forum organised by Cambridge Grey Power and Waipā district councillors. Cr Roger Gordon said Grey Power and councillors want to find the best way for seniors to express their views to council. A senior council established several years ago, with three or four meetings a year held alternately in Cambridge and Te Awamutu, was designed to facilitate communication between seniors and elected council officials, he said. However, feedback from those indicated
Roger Gordon
some seniors believe their voice has been ignored and council’s focus is on meeting the needs of younger residents. Gordon also said it was thought that because of differences between Cambridge and Te Awamutu, any future forum for seniors might be more effective if it is localised to each town.
“There is a real wish for some kind of forum to be reestablished,” he said. It could include considerations around the general disability sector. “The forum will also consider the Waipā District Council’s ‘Age Friendly Policy’ and ‘Age Friendly Implementation Plan’ documents written in 2016. These have informed interaction between council and our seniors.” It will include presentations from Cambridge Grey Power past president Val Massey and Te Awamutu Grey Power president, Michael Cullen.
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