Big role in helping community

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They play an important role in ensuring resilience in the community.

“We need your help to ensure we can help the community when needed,” the brigade says.

“We operate 24 hours a day seven days a week and attend between 150 to 180 callouts a year.”

In addition to fighting fires, the brigade responds to medical events, hazmat incidents, fire alarm activations, severe weather events and other requests for help.

The brigade also supports the wider Wellington district at large scale incidents.

People need to be 18 years or older to volunteer, and need to: be able to pass a Police check and medical; be able to commit to trainings on Mondays from 6:45pm to 9:30pm (earlier and later finishes depending on training); commit to being on-call and attending emergency incidents, including at nights and weekends (a major bonus if people are able to attend calls during business hours); are able to commit to a twoday medical responder course and a seven-day recruit course (the brigade will pay wages for time off work while on training courses); live in Newlands within four minutes of Hurring Place; are able to help with community events and education; and have a sense of community pride.

In return, the brigade offers its volunteers a series of benefits.

Volunteers join a family friendly team of like-minded people.

They learn a series of skills that can be transferred to the volunteers’ work and daily life.

As well as making lifelong friends, the brigade’s volunteers gain a sense of belonging to the Fire and Emergency New Zealand family.

And very importantly, they have the ability to change someone’s life.

Brigade volunteers get a lot of support from Fire and Emergency.

That includes providing mental health support. Fire and Emergency has a scheme similar to an Employee Assistance Programme that provides counselling services, and they also provide health and safety support.

“Volunteering is rewarding,”

Fire and Emergency New Zealand says on its website.

“As a volunteer you will become part of a team, learn new skills, serve your community and have access to special benefits that recognise your commitment.”

People wanting more information or wanting to volunteer as firefighters can do so by visiting the Newland Volunteer Fire Brigade Facebook page and sending the brigade a message.

I recently hosted a meeting which included local property developers and representatives from the City and Regional Councils. The background for the meeting was the need to ensure all people involved in providing more housing in our electorate, whether it be those building them or those regulating and permitting that building, understand the issues which govern the ability to build the houses everyone agrees we need.

It’s great to see progress on the new pathway between Petone and Ngauranga, which of course is also a seawall to protect the rail line and motorway from rising sea-levels. We will soon have access to the western side of the harbour, something previous generations have always lacked.

In fact, of the 17 kilometres of coastline the Ōhāriu Electorate has, there is no easy access to any of it. Formally known as the Ngā Ūranga ki Pito-One, it will provide fishing and recreation opportunities for Ōhāriu residents, and is due to open in 2026.

There are essentially two types of development; greenfields and brownfields. Greenfields means building on currently undeveloped land, typically ex farmland on the edges of current urban areas, where infrastructure like sewers, water supply and other essential services don’t exist are usually built by the developer.

Brownfields development means rebuilding on existing sites, and there has been considerable discussion in recent times around how much intensification should be allowed in existing suburbs, especially changing of height limits to allow for more apartments.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages; the Regional Council in particular see their role to prevent more

And speaking of recreation, the Football World Cup has provided us with great entertainment, and although NZ is now out of the tournament, Wellington is still heaving with visitors and will do until our last game. It’s worth a wander along the waterfront and the city to enjoy the buzz. runoff and other material ending up in our harbours, especially the Porirua harbour in the case of development north of Johnsonville and Newlands. The Wellington City Council are concerned that the existing infrastructure cannot handle the pressure it comes under when new housing areas are developed. Existing infrastructure is aging and needs upgrading across our city, as evidenced by recent pipe failures. An advantage of intensification of existing areas means more people, therefore more ratepayers to pay for those upgrades.

It’s a shame our mild, windless winter came to end as the visitors arrived, but a lot of the Europeans and North Americans especially are used to much harsher climates.

Developers of course need to make a profit, and wish to keep their compliance costs as low as possible. Many believe the Resource Management Act is too cumbersome. We as government for our part have undertaken to rewrite that act.

The feedback was good, but the success will be when there are sufficient affordable houses to meetdemand. That is certainly my goal as your MP.

It’s good our hospitality sector in particular has been able to keep up with the demand. Many people returning from holidays around the world have discovered most of the issues we have been experiencing here in New Zealand are as bad, if not worse, where they have been.

That, and of course having a vibrant and functioning Johnsonville Shopping Centre we can all be proud of.

Our days are getting longer now so it’s a good time to wrap up and enjoy what our city has to offer, which is plenty.

There’s plenty to be getting on with.