Omarama Residents' Association

Craig Dawson will continue as chairman of the Omarama Residents' Association but will bow out of local politics this year after overseeing a range of initiatives to support rural communities in North Otago during a three-year stint as Ahuriri Ward councillor on the Waitaki District Council and four years on the Ahuriri Community Board.

Mr Dawson, who has strongly supported the Alps 2 Ocean cycle trail, the Otematata buildings upgrade and the planned Kurow street upgrade, said he will not stand for re-election in October. He said unfair changes to expense allowances for councillors had made it hard for him to juggle the demands of sitting on the district council with the demands of running his own seven-days-a-week business in Omarama.

Red tape had been been a constant frustration, he said, but he enjoyed ''pushing the barrel'' for the district's rural communities.

''I do find the council process frustrating," he said, "When you're in business, you can get up in the morning and say: `Yes, I'm going to do this', but you can't do that in council."

''Basically I have been there to put my hand up for funding when we can get it and try and push the barrel for small towns. It's been enjoyable and I have learned a lot.

''I find the community service awards very rewarding. There are a lot of people in the small towns that work very hard and do many many hours of unpaid work simply to keep their small towns going and to keep them vibrant. It's been fun working with those groups.''

Source: Otago Daily Times

Bethlehem Heights Residents Association

Outraged residents have accused the Tauranga City Council of overkill for felling at least 15 trees in Bethlehem Heights - most of them flowering cherries.

The roadside trees were planted when Bethlehem Heights was developed in the mid to late 1990s and some ended up close to driveways once houses were built.

One of the residents, Willem Jonkers of Kildonan Place, was astonished when the council felled a tree opposite his house without notifying him first - an oversight the council agreed was a mistake.

He discovered it was part of a wider programme to remove trees deemed to be too close to driveways or footpaths, and which were either causing pavement damage or had potential to cause damage in a few years' time.

Mr Jonkers said the felling of the trees had outraged some residents because they greened the environment and produced a beautiful spring blossom display.

"Most of the chopped trees have not caused any visible damage at all."

Where there was damage, it had been minimal and could easily have been remedied, he said. The cause of the problem could also have been easily fixed by root pruning.

Mr Jonkers accused the council of overkill by felling the flowering cherry trees. "If they are not causing problems, why fell them?"

He understood that a couple of residents had requested the removal of the trees but generally most people he spoke to had been "outraged".

The Bethlehem Heights Residents Association has asked that no more trees be cut down until the council has consulted its members. It questioned whether the felling of most of the trees fitted the council's vegetation and tree management policy.

Council arborist Richard Conning defended the felling, most of which had been driven by the infrastructure development code which said trees could not be within 2 metres of a driveway.

He said 11 flowering cherry trees had been felled in August, plus a gleditsia and an ash. Several other trees were felled in September. Mr Conning said flowering cherries had a very shallow rooting structure whereas the replacement tree, cornus florida, was deeper rooting and much more benign. They also had a really good autumn colour and spring show.

Councillor Rick Curach raised the issue at the council's last meeting for the year on Tuesday, prompting Mayor Stuart Crosby to say "you are damned if you do and damned if you don't".

Mr Conning told the council that trees in narrow berms or poor locations were a legacy of the rapid development in the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the at-risk trees in Bethlehem Heights were growing close to people's driveways and there was a long-term programme to replace them with more appropriate trees planted further away.

"It is not wholesale slaughter."

He said the cost of driveways was met by residents and some of the trees had been very close to causing issues for driveways.

The council endorsed the actions of Mr Conning.

Source: Bay of Plenty Times

Milford Residents Association

Allowing apartments up to eight storeys high in Milford is a step too far for the low key village with few community facilities, residents say.

Milford, Glenfield, Northcote and Birkenhead are among town centre proposed for six to eight-storey apartments. But Milford Residents Association has told Auckland Council it doesn't want Milford to go that high.

Milford association spokeswoman Debbie Dunsford (left) says the other town centres have multiple community facilities provided by the council like libraries, leisure and community centres, yet Milford has not got one.

Streets surrounding the Milford town centre are also earmarked for up to six-storey development but anything higher than four storeys would affect surrounding houses, Ms Dunsford says.  The association says this zone extends part way along Shakespeare, Kitchener and Milford roads, taking in side roads like Sylvan Park Ave, Otakau Rd, Omana Rd and the south sides of Rangitoto and Prospect terraces. The proposals are being considered as Auckland Council prepares its new development rulebook, the Unitary Plan.

"At this stage, we accept the reassurances that communities will be listened to and will work positively with council to ensure changes in Milford are sympathetic and do not spoil our low key and livable community," the association says, "However, we also need to hold council politicians and planners to their word about the plan being community-led."

Shore councillor Ann Hartley says eight storeys would be an upper limit and applicants would have to jump through a large number of hoops to get approval.  Issues like height in relation to boundary, location, bulk and shadowing would all be taken into account, Ms Hartley says. This might mean a site in the middle of a mall might be the only location that could be approved, she says.

"There will a lot of rules and restrictions about urban design. Tools that we have not had before."

Any development would also have to appropriately located so for example a six storey apartment block didn't sit alongside a suburban house, she says.

Mrs Hartley says community facilities are always reviewed as areas develop.

Feedback has started early because a draft Unitary Plan has been prepared and is already out for consultation with stakeholders, she says.

The draft plan isn't officially released until March.

Source: North Shore Times
Group's website: Milford Residents Association

Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association

While the four commissioners, who are chaired by John Robertson, governing the Kaipara district face critics promoting a rates strike, former district councillor Peter Bull is calling on ratepayers to support the government-appointed team.

Mr Bull said the commissioners had inherited a district which had been through "total destruction" and they were doing what they were supposed to do by trying to get Kaipara living within its means for day-to-day expenditure.

Mr Bull, a Maungaturoto farmer with 15 years' local government experience on the Kaipara District Council (KDC) and former Otamatea County Council, said he was "absolutely livid" about the way the KDC had "destroyed" Mangawhai through its conduct with the town's sewerage scheme.

He had seen the bill which Northland MP Mike Sabin was working on for Parliament to validate "irregularities" in Mangawhai sewerage rates.

"It [the bill] is not looking to whitewash any genuine illegalities. It's looking to regularise the rates," Mr Bull said.

He warned people who had been "sucked in" to not paying their rates that they could build up penalties which would increase the account they would eventually have to pay.

Meanwhile, the Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents' Association is waiting for the courts to reopen after the recess to lodge its application for a High Court review of the legality of KDC rates.

The owners of about 1100 Kaipara properties - more than half of them in Mangawhai - have not paid their 2012/13 rates.

And of the owners of the remaining 12,800 properties in the district, about 2600 have only part-paid their rates.

Increases which have more than doubled some rates were set by the former council in a bid to deal with an $80 million debt mostly attributable to the Mangawhai sewerage scheme.

The "Legal Eagle" website of retired Auckland lawyer Clive Boonham accuses the commissioners of seeking a local bill to validate the rates so illegal debts could be dumped on ratepayers and those responsible escape.

Mr Boonham claims no court would entertain any action to recover rates which the council admitted were invalid.

Source: Northern Advocate
Group's website: Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association

Sumner Community Residents Association

A new library is "the highest priority for Sumner", residents say.  Demolition of the suburb's earthquake-damaged library was approved after Christchurch City Council insurers deemed it uneconomic to repair.

Former Sumner Residents' Association chairwoman Adrienne Jackson said the library was sorely missed.  "The most important thing is to have a new library built. It was a big focus in our community, especially with a lot of elderly in Sumner," she said,
"It's the highest priority for Sumner, in my opinion. The library bus is OK but it's no substitute for shelves with books on them."

Council libraries and information manager Carolyn Robertson said options were being considered for a combined library, museum and community hub.

"The loss of three facilities that were all so close together - the library and the already demolished Sumner Community Centre and Museum - has given the council a unique opportunity to begin looking at the type of facility that might best suit the needs of our community in the future," she said

Source: Press (Joelle Dally)
Group's website: Sumner Community Residents Association