Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 3 July 2024
Century celebrated with snooker
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Murchison’s Firecrackers
Hiked fees ‘nail in the coffin’ for housing MAX FRETHEY
Local Democracy Reporter
Tasman’s new development levies have been labelled as “absolutely outrageous” by a local developer who warns that the increases could stymie growth in the region. “It will be a bit of a nail in the coffin for development at pace where we need a really broad and fairly high number of properties being developed,” says Graham Vercoe, owner of GJ Gardner’s Nelson franchise. Development contributions are levies paid to councils from new subdivisions to help finance future infrastructure projects that will benefit the new homes. Tasman District Council has different fees for each of the three waters and transportation areas which are determined by future projects that will benefit specific catchments in the district. Total costs across the Waimea Catchment have increased by $16,000 to $54,150, Motueka Catchment costs have almost doubled to $38,200, and the fees in the Golden Bay Catchment have more than tripled – jumping from $12,600 to $41,300. Areas across the rest of the district only pay contributions for transportation, which have
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LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED
Gellyball comes to Armageddon Ahliah Smith, 8, front left, and Eli Smith, 10, take aim with the home-schooled team around the old Bedford truck in the town of Purgatory. Photo: Anne Hardie. ANNE HARDIE Hidden in the Wai-iti Valley lies the apocalyptic town of Purgatory that hides opponents firing paintball, and now gellyball is taking some
of the sting out of the game for younger players on the Judgement field. Armageddon Paintball is just the third venue in the country to gain a gellyball licence which uses battery-powered
blasters to launch hydrated gel orbs for less pain and less bruising than its big brother, paintball. Owners Norman and Bo Hensley have had three years and two floods at Armaged-
don and last week the local home-schooled kids gave gellyball the thumbs up after firing the gel balls at their opponents from fully automatic
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