Whaingaroa Environmental Defence Inc. news
from Secretary: John Lawson, 51 Cliff St, Raglan 07 825 7866 email johnrag@vodafone.co.nz
There’s no Community Board meeting this month, but there’s a couple of important submissions open on Blueprint planning and food waste composting.Food waste composting began in 2017 and Council is now asking for $79.29 a year to continue. I suggest filling in the form (consultation closes 5pm Fri 26 Apr) by answering –Do you value the service? – Yes
Leave blank the next question about a targeted rate.
Put in Comments –If $111 pays for all our other recycling, it is not clear how it can it cost $80 for just one small part of it, especially when many compost their food waste and it gets sold as compost. I cannot answer the question until I know how $79.29 has been calculated and why MfE funding isn’t available. Please explain.The Blueprint closes at 5pm on Mon 8 Apr. There’s forms for the whole District and each town. They don’t seem to require your real name or email and can be filled in as often as you like.My suggestion is we should fill in the Raglan form to back these 3 local control options, which, if achieved, would allow for most of the other priorities to be realised –
- Refer to District-wide proposals regarding community boards and committees
- Support Raglan Naturally in their prioritised local initiatives such as local food production, energy self sufficiency, alternatives to weed spraying, GE free approaches and education regarding climate change
- Partner with Raglan Naturally in respect to planning processes
On that and the form for the whole District I suggest answering the ‘Do you think that we’ve missed something?‘ box as –
• Yes, you’ve missed the opportunity to complete this plan in the constructive, inclusive way it was started.
• Only Council is being given a say in the final form of the plan, yet many of the priority options are open to several interpretations, for example –
‘Review funding options for solid waste services‘. If that were voted a priority, would Council treat it as a call for more funding, less, just a review, or what?
‘Extend walking and cycling network, including to Whale Bay‘ gives no indication of where else, nor whether the coast route should be alongside Wainui Rd.
‘Secure an improved bus service for the entire Waikato District. . . , including opportunities for commuters‘ could be interpreted as adding a commuter bus somewhere, or having frequent buses for all the towns.
‘Continue to monitor the consequences of State Highway projects on the Waikato District and its local communities, and when possible fulfil an advocacy role to positively influence outcomes‘ could mean anything, from motorways to speed limits, as could ‘Develop a parking strategy‘.
‘Enable the devolution of the management of limited projects. First undertake a ‘local provision’ scoping study‘ How limited? Where? When? What if we have clearer ideas for devolution?
• It seems there is no limit to the number of times individuals can complete the on-line forms. They give no indication of the location of the person completing them. Thus there is nothing to stop a majority from outside Raglan, or even a few submitting multiple answers, deciding, for example, that Raglan’s priority should be a cheap, ambiguous one such as ‘Investigate whether Harbour Board income is used locally’.
• All the towns only get to pick 3 priorities, yet Raglan has 23 options to choose from, but Matangi, for example, only 11; fewer than half.
• The outcome in June needs to be put to further consultation and a means found to create a feedback mechanism more inclusive and less open to manipulation and interpretation.
• There’s no explanation, nor any option to vary, the varied intents of the priorities, such as ‘investigate‘, ‘consider‘, ‘Identify if, how much, and where‘, ‘develop‘, etc.
• Raglan is a long way from the other towns, largely surrounded by water and backed by a mountain, which make it a tourist spot, unlike the other towns. That means it has often been funded and resourced as a small town, though often it has more people than any other town in the District. The Blueprint doesn’t spell out that major distinction.
Let me know if you have any other ideas about these consultations.ThanksJohn.