The next Raglan Community Board meeting is Wed 14 February at 1.30pm in the Town Hall Supper Room. The public forum will be near the start of the formal meeting, giving an opportunity to discuss issues. You might prefer to email/phone the Board.
This summary of the Board agenda was prepared by John Lawson, Secretary of Whāingaroa Environmental Defence, 51 Cliff St, Raglan 07 825 7866 email johnragla@gmail.com
Wednesday’s agenda omits information as highlighted in orange, but it includes –
- Wainui Beach Car Park “entrance and exit will be repaired and completed with a new asphalt surface. . . Design is nearly finished which will inform whether consent is required. Works are planning to be completed in Autumn (consent dependent).”
- Papahua Recreation Reserve Car Park “between the campground and end car park will be upgraded making the road wider, sealing the overflow parking entrance to the sports grounds and installing speed humps to slow traffic. Works will be complete by June – July”.
- Raglan Library Safety Improvements “reinstate weather protection safety non-slip coatings without the need to replace the entry steps. The project is completed.”
- Privet “most people who experience symptoms during the privet flowering season are reacting to the more allergenic pollens such as grasses, weeds (mainly English plantain), or trees such as birch and olive.”
- 2024-2034 Long-Term Plan (LTP) Update, Overflow Car Parking, Waste Collection, Councillors Reports, Board Members’ Reports Verbal.
- Wi Neera Walkway “footpath and balustrade works are progressing through design and consenting currently with works planned onsite for March / April (consent timing dependent). . . Southern Sea Wall works . . . will be dependent on LTP budget.
- Community Board Plans “to transition away from the current Works, Actions, and Issues report to start reporting on progress with your aspirations . . . and how they will link into . . . Community, Economic, Social, Environmental, Cultural Wellbeings”.
- Civil Defence “Scott Bult (Emergency Manager WDC) has prepared a draft CD plan . . . Funding was secured for a generator, radios, community response wheelie bins and Grab and Go bags. Gear stored at Xtreme waste. We need to plan another meeting in the next two months.”
- Soundsplash “Chief Financial Officer to organise a workshop to discuss [venue hire cost] options with the Community Board.”
- Wharf “Craning of the tidal terraces at the northern end as well as resurfacing and other small tasks will happen from 12 February – 18 March.”
- Manu Bay Breakwater “peer reviewer is still to complete his assessment.”
- CCTV “updated/agreed locations were emailed out to all parties on 12/01.”
- Greenslade Rd Reserve playground awaiting inputs of residents consultation from Gabrielle.
- Camp ground “Main kitchen works are to start April . . .design in progress for the stormwater upgrade”.
- Arts Centre Carpark Repairs “working through minor defects with the contractor”.
- Harbour Beacon “The new Raglan Beacon is now installed and commissioned.”
- Funding rounds “whether we should implement funding rounds so that there would be only 2-4 rounds each year with our funds divided equally into half/quarters with a cut of date for each.”
- Discretionary fund has $6,765. Xtreme Zero Waste want $6,840 for Māui Dolphin Day and Raglan Community Radio want $1,200 for FM transmitter replacement.
These council items are not on RCB’s agenda –
- On Friday 8th December 2023, there was a UV fault in the Raglan Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) system causing the plant to shut down and miss a scheduled discharge (6:08 PM). An operator was sent on that evening to Raglan WWTP to reset the fault on the UV unit. On Saturday 9th December in the early morning, it was identified that the fault of the UV unit had occurred during the warmup process prior to the next scheduled discharge. To avoid a potential overflow and the uncertainty around contacting a UV technician out of business hours, a manual discharge was initiated without UV. The discharge was stopped after a duration of 1 hour and 20 minutes, during this time approximately 269m3 of partially treated effluent was discharged on the outgoing tide.
- Raglan WWTP UV system has since failed twice due to lamp failure. The failures shut down the tidal discharges, and repairs were made, so there are no issues with compliance. The UV system, particularly the electronic control system, is 15+ years old and becoming obsolete. An upgrade compatible with the future new plant concept design is being explored.
- Some further testing to be undertaken on the other potential sources of contamination for the Raglan Discharge (under the museum). Mar 2024 Confirmation of test results to be provided.
- CCTV of over 90% of the sewer network commenced in early November. To date, 17 km of WW lines have been
surveyed. Work will continue through to the week ending 15 December, then pause for the holiday period as Raglan becomes very congested over the summer period. Works recommenced on 8 January. This work is being delivered by Insight CCTV & Jetting. Following the Raglan sampling results, this will include focus on the area around the Museum.
- The investigation into the November Raglan incidents is ongoing, and the meeting with WRC is expected in January.
- The disposal option for land disposal on the Wainui reserve is being worked on, and the concept report should be ready by February 2024 [see next item].
• The project team has received confirmation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to utilise land at the Maungatawhiri Road site.
• The contract has been awarded to Apex Water for the MBR plant upgrade.
Non-compliances relate to:
• Continuing non-compliance for Total Suspended Solids.
• Discharge exceeding 2600m3
• Faecal coliform limit exceedance
• Out of hours discharge
Raglan WWTP Upgrade – Construction commencement activities are underway.
Streamline CCTV contractors recently conducted comprehensive stormwater asset maintenance in Raglan, focusing on SPEL filters. The investigation covered the entire array of installed stormwater filter devices to assess the current asset situation and quantify the number of cartridges in each SPEL filter. This development highlighted the approach to asset management after consent transfer was not operating correctly. This has now been addressed to ensure assets are appropriately maintained in the first two years after vesting.
The Raglan WTP suffered multiple Comms failures in December due to the radio connection between the Raglan WTP hilltop reservoir and the Bow Street Reservoir. Unfortunately, the expert staff required to resolve the issue were unavailable until the 16th of January to resolve this issue. We had multiple callouts to both sites during December.
The Waters Governance Board approved the reservoir paper encompassing all upcoming projects . . . Further investigations are underway for the Raglan site, with the existing [Spring/Te Hutewai] site being shown as the most favoured option.
2,097 water meters read in Raglan.
Raglan Waste Water Treatment Plant Upgrade 8 Feb meeting on YouTube
Slides still show land disposal options, but most of the discussion was around the new MBR filters removing half the current nutrients and the cost of land disposal. The next zoom is planned for 6.30pm on Thu 11 Apr.
Regional Rates To Go Up By 6% 5/2
WRC agreed a 10-year budget with a 6% rates rise in 2024/25, heavily influenced by a 5.7% increase in baseline costs. During consultation from 2 April to 2 May, WRC will seek feedback on: $500,000 pa for 3 years for Te Waka economic development agency, ceasing the regional development fund established in 2015, picking up the rating of public transport from local councils, also a 20% increase in fares for bus users, “designed to help keep general rates down”.
Waikato Regional Council 30/1 page 235
A fare increase at this level would bring in additional fare revenue by approximately $373,000 a year. The additional revenue will enable Council to reduce its rates by around $183,000 per annum [0.09% of $201,943,000 total WRC spending – around 60 cents a year on rates bill (half the saving goes back to government and only half to ratepayers). The bus fare to Hamilton will go from $7 to $8.50 and WRC estimate it’ll cut bus use by 4%].
Future Proof Public Transport Subcommittee 24/11
30. Due to costing constraints, a new local on-demand service for Raglan has been postponed until funding from Waka Kotahi has been received through the low-cost low-risk programme.
31. The proposed changes to the #23 Raglan bus service and the Whatawhata school assist service are anticipated to proceed with implementation in April 2024.
Future Proof Consultation is open until 5pm, Mon 19 Feb
Table 1 Future Proof staging of growth areas
| Lorenzen Bay, Flax Cove and Rangaitahi Peninsula | Short term |
| Afon Opotoru | Medium term |
| Rakaunui and Te Hutewai | Beyond 30 years |
Business land – Raglan and Te Kauwhata have some localised shortages.
Table 9: Intensification targets within urban enablement areas
| Location | Urban environment under the NPS | Net target densities (dwellings per hectare) to be achieved over time in defined locations [ 5 ] | Future public transport service |
| Raglan | N/A | 25-35 in defined intensification areas 20-25 in greenfield locations | TBC |
[5] Areas/locations are indicative and will be defined through individual Future Proof partners’ plan making processes.
Development Infrastructure
| Critical Infrastructure | Timing of Infrastructure | Cost indication [ 1 ] | Funded/partiallyfunded/unfunded | |
| Northern Waikato | Stormwater Consents/Reticulation/ Projects Pookeno, Tuakau, Te Kauwhata, Huntly, Raglan | Short – Long | TBC | LTP Funded |
| WesternWaikatoRaglanTe Kowhai | Stormwater Consents/Reticulation/ Projects Pookeno, Tuakau, Te Kauwhata, Huntly, Raglan | Short – Long | TBC | LTP Funded |
| Water Reservoirs Te Kowhai & Raglan | Short | $$ | LTP Funded | |
| Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade Raglan | Short – Medium | $$ | LTP Funded | |
| Corridor study and investigation – Raglan[all the other growth area corridor studies have been done – how feasible is it to fit traffic for 12,000 on SH23?] | Short – Medium | $ | LTP Funded | |
| Two Lane Bridge Wainui Road Raglan | Medium – Long | $$$ | Unfunded |
purchase of the property at 398 Wainui Rd, funded from the Strategic Property District Wide budget until such time as it is required for a road.
Todd Energy applies for offshore gas mining permit, Newsroom 7/12
An exploration permit for the Karewa block, 45km W of Raglan was granted to Conoco in 1993. Todd Energy acquired it in 2003 and announced it had found 150bn ft3 of gas, but has since sat on the application. Todd said that the permit expired at the end of July. “To keep Karewa open to meet future gas demand, Todd Energy applied for an offshore Petroleum Mining Permit.
WDC housing workshop 7/12
| House Sales November 2021 – November 2023 | Rental | |||||||||||
| Number of Home Sales | Turnover of Estimated Stock | Median Sale Price | Median Age of Dwelling | Median Beds | Median Home Size | Median Land size | Median Rent | Rent Increase Since Census 2018 | Number of Rental Properties (Bonds) | % of Property Pool that are Rentals | Estimated Median Gross Rental Yield | |
| Horotiu | 23 | 8% | $730,000 | 2020-2029 | 3 | 125 | 500 | $635 | 87% | 51 | 18% | 5.0% |
| Huntly | 210 | 7% | $526,250 | 1970-1979 | 3 | 107 | 898 | $480 | 109% | 810 | 26% | 5.7% |
| Meremere | 29 | 3% | $560,000 | 1960-1969 | 3 | 105 | 839 | $500 | 117% | 63 | 7% | 5.3% |
| Ngaaruawaahia | 239 | 10% | $675,000 | 1990-1999 | 3 | 132 | 670 | $535 | 84% | 561 | 22% | 5.1% |
| Pookeno | 316 | 15% | $972,500 | 2020-2029 | 4 | 184 | 605 | $665 | 21% | 141 | 7% | 4.5% |
| Port Waikato | 33 | 6% | $640,000 | 1970-1979 | 3 | 90 | 809 | No rental data available on Tenancy Services | ||||
| Raglan | 145 | 7% | $978,000 | 1980-1989 | 3 | 104 | 814 | $520 | 63% | 378 | 18% | 3.9% |
| Tamahere | 108 | 4% | $1,885,000 | 2000-2009 | 5 | 300 | 7000 | $550 | 57% | 156 | 6% | 2.1% |
| Taupiri | 32 | 3% | $577,500 | 2010-2019 | 3 | 104 | 723 | $550 | 104% | 156 | 16% | 5.5% |
| Te Kauwhata | 308 | 25% | $927,500 | 2020-2029 | 4 | 288 | 483 | $580 | 66% | 288 | 23% | 4.6% |
| Tuakau | 257 | 13% | $810,000 | 2000-2009 | 3 | 127 | 627 | $570 | 50% | 546 | 27% | 4.5% |
Other issues missing from the RCB agenda are local bus, Raglan Naturally, Papahua erosion, fluoride, off-shore windfarm, Community Energy Whāingaroa, roading, Blueprints, water pipes, boat ramp charges, Te Uku Recycling Centre, organic waste, rubbish on SH23, Area School road safety, 3 Bow St, Greenslade Rd SH23 junction, Connectivity Strategy, Surf2surf walkway, speeding on Main Rd, WEL EV Charger, Manu Bay planting, Harbour Strategy, Coastal Reserves annual meeting (last one was Sep 2022), Animal Control late responses, unsealed roading, cycle counts, Bayview Rd safety, Canada geese, Cliff St, Park Dr/Long St crossing, town square, Town Hall Committee, WRAP, Town Hall Warrant of Fitness, Calvert Rd parking, volunteer worker safety, Puriri Park, Eco Village.
Should WED be taking up these or other issues?