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Vol 46, No 21
Lake catchment clean-up plans accelerating By MARIANNE KELLY
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Three years after an action plan was formulated to clean up the seriously-polluted Otara Lake, the Howick Local Board (HLB) is considering its financial assistance for projects to clean up the extensive network of Howick Ward catchment streams which flow into the lake. In July 2014, then Minister for the Environment, Amy Adams, attended the launch of a major project to restore The Times reported her saying real change did not come from Wellington but from collaboration by
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communities buying in and taking responsibility. The battle to clean up the lake was described by then chairman of the OtaraPapatoetoe Local Board, Efeso Collins, as being bigger than the epic historical drama Ben Hur. A group of more than 20 organisations and individuals, including Otara/Papatoetoe and HLB representatives agreed on an action plan and established a steering plan group. The Otara Lake and Waterways Trust was formed in March last year and Richard Myhre, who chairs it, says businesses and residents in the
area should be aware that they have a potential recreational lake in their midst, almost the size of the Panmure Basin. The lake was formed in 1968 when the Electricity Commission built a weir across the mouth of the Otara Creek system – feeding into the Tamaki River – for cooling ponds for a new power station. But the weir effectively closed off the creeks from the natural flushing provided for centuries by the Tamaki. The lake’s urban catchment extends well beyond the Otara/Papatoetoe Local Board boundary and deep into the Howick Ward. An extensive
network of waterways running from the Redoubt Road ridge through new residential development in East Tamaki Heights and Flat Bush and the East Tamaki industrial area deposits lead, zinc, urban litter and sediment not into the Pakuranga but the Otara Creek at Highbrook Bridge. While industrial pollution is not the issue it used to be because of compliance requirements, Mr Myhre says the major cause is ongoing residential development in the eastern Howick Ward areas of Flat Bush/Ormiston.
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Fight with bureaucrats over road resurfacing
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Howick Pakuranga netball centre Pink Fundraising event
By MARIANNE KELLY
Ham carvery rolls will be sold & donations will be accepted.
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Saturday, 27 May | 8am-3pm
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esidents who believe their long street is turning into an arterial road are locked in a battle with Auckland Transport (AT) to get the road resurfacing rules waived. When resealing of Kilkenny Drive in Botany started at the end of March, householders initially didn’t react when chip seal was laid. They erroneously assumed this was a base cover and that the job would be finished with smooth asphalt, as was the case in nearby stretches. To their horror, they found out that the messy chip seal was the final product. They are upset that loose stones and gravel are strewn over footpaths and onto private properties, traffic noise has increased significantly and the road is no longer safe for children and elderly peo-
ple. Even AT was taken aback when 90-year-old Colin Stonex was rushed to hospital having sustained injury to his face,
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hands and knees after falling on the road, and promised to offer any assistance they could in his recovery.
A group of residents presented a petition signed by all 205 people who live along the new stretch of seal to the Howick Local Board’s May 15 meeting, also sending it to AT chief executive David Warburton. HLB elected member Mike Turinsky attended a meeting in Kilkenny Drive the following Friday (May 19), along with 14 residents, two AT representatives, one person representing the contractor Fulton Hogan, and Labour candidate Tofik Mamedov. Meeting organiser Tweety Tang says the residents were hoping AT would agree to fix the road. “But we felt the AT representatives were trying to give us the stats only, such as how much it costs per square metre if they use asphalt compared with chip seal. “We are saying the seal is not appropriate for urban development but they didn’t address the issues.” ➤ Turn to Page 3
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