Issuu

A selection of local breaking stories featured this week on... Read these stories in full at www.sunlive.co.nz

Kaimai death

Two Tauranga people charged after a string of events including the death of an 18-year-old Tauranga teenager in the lower Kaimais remain behind bars. Thomas Kevin McDonald, 30, and Cheyanne McCausland, 23, appeared in Tauranga District Court on Monday where they were further remanded in custody until June 18. The pair are charged with kidnapping, injuring with intent to injure, aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a motor vehicle. McDonald is also charged with assault on a female and wilful damage. The pair were arrested in South Auckland on April 3 allegedly in possession of a stolen vehicle that police say was used in a crime spree that involved kidnapping, aggravated robbery and the dumping of a teen’s body outside Matamata Hospital. Tauranga teen Jovaan Graham died immediately after being struck by a Toyota Prado on State Highway 29 around 3am on April 3. Her body was found outside Pohlen Hospital in Matamata around 4am.

SWAT action on flooding

Waihi Beach residents are taking action against a “lack of council initiative” to stop continual flooding at the beachside township. Residents will come together at a community meeting at Waihi Beach hall on Monday to discuss the flooding issues at the town. The meeting is being led by the Waihi Beach Storm Water Action Team that believes the Western Bay of Plenty District Council is allowing the town to flood on regular occasions.

Boat lost at Plate Island

A 35foot motor sailor has been lost at Plate Island in the Bay of Plenty, the Maketu Volunteer Coastguard reports. Coastguard president Shane Beech says Coastguard was called to rescue a couple on the boat around 8pm on Saturday evening. The boat was on a delivery voyage from Picton to Thames when it struck trouble in bad weather. The pair were removed from the boat and when they returned on Tuesday the boat was gone. It is believed to have hit a rock and sunk.

Driving bus changes Ted Petrie believes simple modifications to the city’s bus services in peak commute times would solve many traffic and parking issues loathed by Tauranga residents and get more people using public transport. The Tauranga resident says too many people are driving their cars to work and Bay of Plenty Regional Council needs to improve services during commute times to encourage people onto buses. This, he says, would reduce congestion in the early morn-

ing and evening, free up parking within the CBD and bring more shoppers into the city. “We must improve the bus service and simplify fares to attract commuters… a halfhourly bus service is inadequate,” says Ted. “The streets around the CBD are full of all-day parkers and so shoppers go to the malls, and shopkeepers complain of a lack of customers.” Ted’s suggested changes would cost almost nothing and can be immediate, he says. These include spreading departure times out and speeding up entry by introducing a simple fare structure: $2 to the bridges and $3 to suburbs. Ted also suggests selling weekly passes at attractive fare prices to encourage regular use.

Ted Petrie is calling for improvements to the city’s bus service during peak hours. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

“Fares of $25 (suburbs) and $20 (inner city) for weekly tickets, with a regular advertising campaign, would attract regular commuters and casuals to lessen the sight of passing empty buses all day. “We could get suburban drivers out of their cars and onto buses.” BOPRC transport policy manager Garry Maloney says they continuously review bus services and implement appropriate changes to meet passengers’ needs, but says their statistics show most users are happy with the current system. The Tauranga urban bus service recorded patronage of 1,605,500 for the 2010/11 year and 1,783,732 for the 2011/12 year. While there are no immediate plans for more peak hour services, Garry says if more people used the bus they would look at increasing service numbers. “We encourage the use of sustainable transport choices, not only because of the environmental impacts, but because less vehicles on the road mean less traffic congestion for everyone. “We would expect to see our services expand to meet increased demand, which would include the services operating on a more frequent timetable.” He says a real time information system is planned for Tauranga along with a regionwide electronic ticketing system. “It is hoped that these systems will improve the customer experience of public transport.”

By Corrie Taylor

New roles for local police staff A restructure of Western Bay Police will see Te Puke senior sergeant Deirdre Lack take up a new role as sub-area response manager on July 1. The new sub-area response manager role is one of three created in the Western Bay of Plenty as part of a staffing restructure. Deirdre says someone will be based in Greerton to oversee Greerton and Katikati and another will look after Tauranga station. As part of her new role, Deirdre will be looking after the Mount Maunganui, Papamoa and Te Puke areas. She says the new role should be good and she just wants to get on and do it. Former Mount Maunganui senior sergeant Joel Lamb has taken up an inspector’s position in Auckland. “I’m not replacing Joel,” says Deirdre. “They never replaced him because of the restructure we have been going through. There has just been a relieving person in there for the time being. “My office is based at the Mount but I won’t be working out of there every day. I’ve still got Papamoa and Te Puke to look after and will be visiting those stations, volunteers and engaging the

Loose trailer rolls off highway

Queen’s Birthday

The northbound lane of State Highway 2 between Papamoa and Te Puke was closed for half a day this week while an unladen logging trailer was removed. Police and InRoads closed the northbound lane of the highway in the vicinity of Poplar Lane from 9am-12.30pm on Wednesday. Western Bay of Plenty road policing manager Senior Sergeant Ian Campion says the trailer unit became detached from the logging truck that was towing it and veered across the road and down a two metre bank.

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Tauranga’s 10 most wanted

Tauranga Police are on the hunt for 10 men who have been identified as this year’s most wanted. All men are wanted for failing to appear in court on a number of charges including violent offences, dishonesty and driving offences and breaching community work. To view these wanted men go to www.sunlive.co.nz

Trustee education Talented Bay of Plenty youth aiming to earn a tertiary scholarship from The Bay of Plenty Education Trust have a new trustee to impress. Opotoki District Council chief executive Aileen Lawrie has joined the trust following the retirement of Peter Patterson and John Mainland, who collectively served as trustees for 13 years. The scholarship programme – which is focussed on supporting top students studying in the field of science, technology and emerging industries – has awarded 183 scholarships worth $757,500 during the past 13 years. The trust is chaired by Roger Loveridge, with other trustees Ses MacKinnon, Michael Batchelor, John Burn, Pauline Cowens, Brian Scantlebury, Peter Wood and John Revington. Trust details: www. bopeducationtrust.org.nz

Senior sergeant Deirdre Lack will take up her new position as sub-area response manager on July 1. Photo by Tracy Hardy. community in all three areas.” She says with the police’s new mobility project, which provides officers with i-Pads and i-Phones, she can actually work away from the station. By Letitia Atkinson

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