Tuesday 13 March 2012
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Nelson gets $9M world cup boost
Russell St resident Madge Wilson with the tree she watched her father and brother plant in 1931 after it was given “heritage tree status” by the Nelson City Council last week. Photo: Jonathan McKeown.
Listed tree especially special Changes to the Nelson Resource Management Plan have seen 24 trees across the region become protected, each with its own unique story like Madge Wilson’s sprawling pohutukawa, a life-long friend with rather healthy benefits. In 1931 Madge looked on as her father and brother planted a tiny seedling in the bottom garden of her Russell St property. Madge, living in the house most of her life, tended the tree, nurturing
it to the extensive coastal evergreen it is eighty years later. “It’s grown up with me. I can say that because it’s younger than I am,” Madge chuckles. Madge says she wrote to Nelson City Council a few years ago after an arborist suggested it should be protected and with the help of a friend they “kept up the pressure” without a decision though. Madge who is now 88, suddenly became very sick. “I wasn’t expected to live at that time
and I went to the hospice to die,” she says. Yet Madge pulled through because she was determined to get back to her home and look upon her view one more time. “The thing is, having such an attachment to this property, I made a special effort to get back home. I was determined,” she says. “I wasn’t expected to live but after a week I started to recover. It was just
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Rugby fans boosted the Nelson economy by more than $9 million during last year’s Rugby World Cup, according to stats released by Nelson City Council yesterday. Visitors spent just over five million of that figure, mostly on accommodation, food and beverages. They made up 16 per cent of spectators at the three games hosted at Trafalgar Park. The figures were presented at last week’s NCC economic development committee meeting, where its contribution of $1.76 million was hailed as helping bring much of the extra spending to the region. In total the event increased the region’s gross domestic product by $7 million and the total revenue generated – a measure that takes the new spending amount and calculates that impact – was $14.2 million. Council says the figures show its investment to pro-
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mote the event has paid off, with mayor Aldo Miccio saying the benefits were greater than he anticipated. “The economic gains are quite clear. The event was a tremendous financial success. Council made an impact on the local economy with its contribution to regional GDP and the staff managed the event expenditure with supreme care. “More than the economic benefits, however, I see the benefit of the massive community involvement that was so evident for two months last spring. “I’m enormously proud of the community’s response to RWC 2011 and I’ve never seen us have such a great time together than during the party that was Rugby World Cup.” The figures also showed a combined total of 45,000 people attended the three pool matches at Trafalgar Park.
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