Community Board - June

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This would allow the board to fund more low level community projects, albeit at the expense of fewer fund large ones. Abbie said that the meeting had been “very good” and she had requested further information in the form of a staff report. “Then we can move forward as to what we want to fund.”

Strategic planning workshop:

A date was to set (31/7) for a strategic planning workshop to identify how the board could more effectively contribute to the Golden Bay community

Long Term Plan:

Group manager – service and strategy John Rudd provided a short update on the LTP process. He explained that “preengagement” had been completed and responses, including around 2,000 “digital interactions”, discussed with council. Among the key messages from this stage was the need to “look after the stuff we’ve built”. John outlined the timeline which included a series of workshops to work on policies including the financial strategy.

John said that the revamp of the Three Waters programme meant Tasman District was now part of the small population Top of the South entity, and stressed the need for consolidation and targeted investment during the transition. “Council will have some hard decisions over the next three-to-six years.”

Letter of support:

The Golden Bay Mohua Affordable Housing Trust (GBMAHT) submitted a request for the board to supply a letter of support for their proposed accessible pensioner flat development on Reilly Street, to include in a funding application to central Government. Chris Bennett from GBMAHT had included a needs assessment report with the request which highlighted the dire shortage of affordable housing for seniors.

According to TDC, the proposed site on Reilly Street is in a potential flood-risk zone which has complicated the Resource Consent process. Following a debate about council development policy in such cases, and a clarification about the exact purpose of the letter, Abbie agreed to ask Chris for details of the GBMAHT application so the board could draft a specific letter of support. “We definitely want to support it.”

Action Sheet:

A review of the Action Sheet began with a discussion about the possible adoption or endorsement of the Mohua 2042 Strategy document by the GBCB. However, before any such steps could be taken, councillor Chris Hill observed that “there hasn’t been wide involvement from the Golden Bay community”. The board, she said, needed to be “careful about what we endorse” and suggested TDC staff were asked for advice.

Abbie agreed to invite representatives to address a future GBCB meeting. “Mohua 2042 could make a presentation but we wouldn’t endorse it formally.”

Providing a brief update about holding GBCB meetings in Collingwood, TDC team leader customer services Jess McAlinden explained that the equipment required for online streaming from the fire station was on its way.

Following a discussion at May’s GBCB meeting, Abbie had made a formal request to TDC for regular maintenance of the Pōhara to Tākaka Cycleway, but had not received a response. “I’ll give it a nudge.”

Following the board’s official receipt of the financial summary, the meeting closed.

The next GBCB meeting is at TDC Service Centre Tākaka on Monday 10 July at 1pm.

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Justifying the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Without wanting to become part of his weekly podium discussions, I think it would be beneficial if Mr Turner would research the subjects he pipes up about. Especially in his latest piece. It would avoid showing a complete lack of understanding of the war in Ukraine. But of course its very easy and popular to blow into the same trumpet as the mainstream media. A look behind the facade quickly reveals the real culprits and beneficiaries of this disaster, but to simplify matters let me ask you two questions. Firstly: how do you think the USA would react if China was to negotiate and agree on a pact with Mexico to build a naval or airforce base and station nuclear weapons there? Secondly: do you realise that this war could have been completely avoided by agreeing to two basic demands by Russia? 1) That Ukraine would remain neutral and not become part of Nato, and 2) That Ukraine would implement and respect the Minsk agreements. If you think that this was too much to ask for and worth the loss of thousands of lives, the complete destruction of Ukraine, billions of dollars in armaments, the increase in living costs not to mention the restructuring and so on then you need to ask another question: who benefits from all this? It's time to wake up and realise that the poor Ukranians are being sacrificed not for democracy and freedom but for a few unscrupulous business people and their greed. And that is the real truth.

Uwe Steidinger

Time for transformational change

Many people recognise that it's time for transformational change. Not just beating around the bush. Degrowth, ecological economics, donut economics, wellbeing-based economics are all things to consider for creating a future that fits within planetary boundaries. The ideals of continual economic growth are harmful for us, the environment and many species that exist within Earth’s systems complexity. Not only do we need to consider how we do business, how economies are structured, or how taxation favours the wealthy. We also need to consider that living resource-intensive lifestyles has vast destructive outcomes. We tend to ignore these of course, so we can feel good about life choices. We tend to believe narratives that help us off-set our guilt (greenwash) such as carbon trading. The thing I find interesting is that we're conditioned to believe that a certain way of life (hyper-consumerism) is required to be happy, to be successful and so on. Conversely, social science research shows that our wellbeing is more reliant on social support than having the latest gadget. If this is the case, then we need to question our current socioeconomic paradigm. Is it serving us, or are we serving it? And, who are we really serving to grow a society built on greed and ideals of more for the sake of more? Why does our current economic structure ignore the negative externalities within its accounting analysis? How is it that banks and industry leaders have more say in socio-environmental policies than the low-income segment of society?

Rod Barker

Port Tarakohe safe boat launching

At 70 years old and looking back at my more than 60 years of boating, whether launching fishing boats with my grandfather, the many years of launching trailer sailers and/ or living on yachts at marinas, I have no recollections of any marina not having a launching dock. The massive, commercial expansion of Port Tarakohe, with millions of dollars being spent is still ignoring the recreational boaters. The launching of a recreational boat of any sort, requires two people, numerous steps of parking and returning to the boat at the pontoon with enough room for one boat. Unless risking falling off the draw bar of your trailer, climbing over the bow to board your boat or wading into the water, launching a boat single-handed raises a considerable health and safety issue.

The proposed launching “finger” which is now in question, considering the lack of funds available for greater community boating interest, is a waste of money seeing how it’s set to one side rather than down the middle.

Port Motueka has what Golden Bay needs. My recent trip to watch the Noelex 22 Nationals saw 10 boats waiting on the 50-60 metre floating dock, taking turns retrieving their boats. Anyone wanting to join me to shed light on this long-standing need and for our local government to supply us with a safe launching facility, please contact TDC and share your opinion. Cheers and safe boating.

Bill Wallis

Correction

In last week's article "Spicing up learning with Asia NZ" (GBW 9/6), it was reported that Venini Tindling, GBHS English teacher, applied for funding from the Arasan NZ Foundation Trust. The funding for the Indian cultural appreciation day was from Asia New Zealand Foundation. The workshops were conducted by the Arasan NZ Trust. Our apologies for the error.

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Meet

Meet the team at Ezy Kitchens and Appliances Nelson!

We would love the opportunity to meet with you and supply a design and quote for your kitchen or joinery needs.

We are planning to be in Golden Bay on Tuesday 27th June

We are planning to be in the Golden Bay area on Tuesday 3rd May.

Please call the office on 03 544 4890 to book in a measure and consult with Nathan or Wayne.

Please call the office on 03 544 4890 to book in a measure and consult with Nathan or Wayne.