Pages 23 - 35
Thursday October 15, 2015 | Issue 671
Back home: Pharmacy farewells temporary premises. — page 8.
Real estate: Nth Canterbury property sales.
Rubbish: Family calls for help to clean up park.
— pages 46 51.
— page 15.
Lives at risk in rural areas Amanda Bowes highlights a growing problem in rural areas of the Hurunui district with the RAPID system of numbering of properties. She finds confusion reigns over the system and there are fears someone could lose their life if the system is not brought up-to-date to make it easier for emergency services to identify properties. Lives and property are being put at risk because of poorly displayed or lack of RAPID numbers at rural entranceways in the Hurunui district. RAPID (Rural Address Property Identification) numbers the rural equivalent of an urban street number are the vital link for emergency services to reach the right destination following a call out. An ambulance crew was unable to locate a property recently because there was no rapid number displayed. Hurunui District councillor, Marie Black, was alerted to the problem when she attended a St John session in Leithfield and many of the young mothers at the course had no idea about the Rapid Number system. She then alerted the Hurunui District Council with her concerns. Hurunui Mayor Winton Dalley says it is critical people in rural areas know and understand their RAPID number. ‘‘For emergency services, it could be a matter of life or death any delay in finding the property could affect the outcome.’’ Not only is it newcomers to the area who may not know of or have a rapid number clearly displayed, but some established properties also have numbers that are difficult to see because of their position, or have become overgrown. Groups of letter boxes at the beginning of a road can also be a problem, the numbers are useful for the postie, but not for emergency services so need to be on the entranceways to the properties as well. Any land that is subdivided will have its own rapid number and the seller and
RAPID response . . . Hurunui District councillor Marie Black (left) and Mayor Winton Dalley stand by a mailbox where the rural address property identification (RAPID) numbers is easy to see day or night. They are concerned for people’s lives could be lost because of nonexistent or hard to see PHOTO: AMANDA BOWES. RAPID numbers. the buyer need to know what it is and make sure a number is displayed. Even if there is no dwelling on the land, if an accident happens on the
property or there is a fire, it needs to be identified. Apart from property owners, some emergency service personnel have also been known to not understand the concept of RAPID numbers. ‘‘Council wants to rehighlight the system and how it works if you don’t know what your RAPID number is, ring the council. ‘‘It is up to the owner to get stickon numbers for their gateway. They need to reflective so they can be seen in the dark,’’ says Mr Dalley. The blue road signs have the RAPID numbers from 1, to the number of the last property on that road. The Policy on issuing of rural address numbers in the Hurunui district is: Rural RAPID address numbers shall be calculated by dividing the distance in metres from the start of the road by 10, odd numbers on the left, even numbers on the right. Distances are measured to the vehicle entrance to the main dwelling on the property. RAPID numbers will be allocated with the lowest number located at the end of the road closest to the nearest emergency services depot. In this way, emergency services will find it less difficult to find and locate rural properties. Changes to RAPID numbers are discouraged. Any changes to the numbers may compromise the integrity of the numbering system. A RAPID property address does not affect the rural delivery number; the RD number is still retained for postal address purposes. The Hurunui District Council is urging all rural property owners to check their number is displayed and easily seen, or if there is no number displayed, get one for the entranceway. If the number is not known, ring the Council and find out, then acquire the physical numbers. Any queries can be directed to the Hurunui District council on 03 314 8816.
Flare-ups hard work By ROBYN BRISTOW If you have light a fire in the Waimakariri or Hurunui districts, make sure it is out. This is the call from rural fire officers who are also urging residents to check out long term forecasts before lighting up to ensure that strong winds are not forecast. Principal rural fire officer Tim Sheppard says in the past week firemen, many of them volunteers, have been run off their feet attending fires ‘‘all of them flare ups’’. ‘‘We have had a week of fires and all were fires that people thought were out.’’ He said volunteers were all ‘‘feeling it’’. ‘‘They are tired so we brought in crews from Nelson to give them a break.’’ He said without outside help they could not have manned a big fire earlier this week. ‘‘We would not have been able to get crews. ‘‘They (fire fighters) are still recovering. ‘‘They also have jobs and they have already had a lot of time off work. I send out a big thank you to employers for letting these guys take time off,’’ says Mr Sheppard. He said it was madness to think about lighting up in ‘‘these nor’west conditions’’ and urged people to check out any fires they had lit previously by putting their hand in the ashes or its centre to see if it was hot. Continued Page
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