WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2018
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Still drunk, still driving
Plan in the bag
HAYLEY GASTMEIER
Carterton Mayor John Booth tests his bag-packing skills at Carterton New World. PHOTO/EMILY IRELAND
EMILY IRELAND The words “long term plan” may cause a few eyes to glaze over, but it’s probably the most important council document there is. That’s why Carterton has taken its consultation to the next level. Gone are the days of simply holding a workshop or public meeting. This year, councillors have been hitting the streets – well, bars, restaurants, and shops – to make sure their long term plan ideas reach as many of their 9000 or so residents as possible. And with items like the expansion of rubbish and recycling services on the list
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– including food waste collection – and a whopping 9.4 per cent average rates hike, thorough community consultation is critical. The long term plan – or as Carterton calls it, the Ten Year Plan – is a consultation document that sets out the council’s intentions for the next decade. The plan is reviewed every three years to align with the district’s priorities and to address issues. Over the weekend, Carterton residents may have run into a few of their councillors and Mayor John Booth in what is the council’s new method of consultation.
On Friday night, the team hit the Royal Oak tavern to talk about the long term plan over a pint, and on Sunday, the team bagged their residents’ groceries at Carterton New World – chatting casually about what the next 10 years in the town should look like. “We just wanted to up our game,” Mr Booth said. “The Royal Oak was an interesting experience. “There was a group of farmers, a group of loggers, and a group of other locals.
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Drink driving is still a “major issue” in Wairarapa, with people ignoring safety messages and putting innocent lives at risk, a road safety expert says. Between 2009 and 2017, there were five fatal and 17 serious injury crashes involving alcohol in the region, New Zealand Transport Agency figures show. And the number of people caught drinking and driving is probably only the tip of the ice-berg. According to official police data, the number of alcohol-related driving offences in the region has stayed relatively stable in recent years. Wairarapa saw 303 recorded drink driving offences in 2009, with numbers in the intervening nine years fluctuating between a high of 324 in 2010, to a low of 208 in 2016. Last year 259 drunk drivers were caught. Wairarapa Road Safety Council manager Bruce Pauling said the figures showed that drink driving was clearly “still a major issue” across the district, which was considered the highest risk area in the Wellington region, when it came to road safety. He said in 2017, the statistics amounted to someone caught drink-driving “every 1.5 days” — with alcohol a factor in four serious-injury crashes. “It begs the question of how many more non-apprehended drivers are still driving over the limit and putting innocent lives at risk,” Mr Pauling said.
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