Jun 14: Raglan Community Board Meeting

This summary of the agenda for the Raglan Community Board meeting was prepared by Whaingaroa Environmental Defence Incorporated, Registered no.1912150, Secretary: John Lawson, 51 Cliff St, Raglan 07 825 7866 email johnrag@vodafone.co.nz

The full agenda is available here agenda.

1. Wastewater Overflow report said to be attached, but isn’t. It concludes with –

8.2 Recommendations

The incident occurred due to a number of factors including infrastructure age and condition, possible effects from adjacent construction, insufficient emergency storage, telemetry alarm notifications and high inflows into a critical network pump station.

The incident could possibly have been avoided had appropriate measure been in place prior. The following recommendations with respect to those measures are as follows:

a. Ensure that all pump station high level alarms result in a call-out to the duty operator. This was implemented for the Marine Parade pump station immediately following the incident.

b. Ensure that all pump stations have the recommended volume of emergency storage in the network. Pump stations should be assessed against the volume requirement and the most critical pump stations (i.e. those with the lowest 9% of the requirement) addressed first. This was underway at the time of the incident and is now complete for the Marine Parade pump station.

c. Establish that upstream pump stations need to be turned off in the event of an issue, in documented procedures. As a minimum process, make sure that new operational personnel are made aware of the requirement.

d. Make sure that short or isolated sections of network pipeline are included in scheduled condition inspections, particularly those associated with strategic pipelines or structures.

e. Provide information and education to contractors working in close proximity of water services. In particular the potential meaning of the sudden onset of conditions such as those seen in this incident. Establish a culture that notification is preferred over conservatism — telemetry and systems checks, or recommendations to the onsite contractor can be made easily and remotely.

Latest overflow not mentioned. 50 year strategy (2014, but now published) says “Raglan’s maximum flow discharge is predicted to consistently exceed the current consent limit near the time the current consent expires in 2020, with occasional breaches from time to time before that. The Raglan WWTP also regularly exceeds the current concentration limits for pathogens and total suspended solids and peak flow limit.” The Infrastructure Committee agenda says the Regional Council investigation is expected to be completed mid/late June.

2. SH23 Safety Management report being prepared.

3. Wainui Rd to Karioi track – Opus reported that neighbouring landowners don’t favour the trail and require it to be fenced. WDC say budget doesn’t allow for fencing. [A legal opinion on-line says, “Council could legally require you to fence your boundary with the paper road.”]

4. Wainui Rd ‘share with cyclists’ signs will be restored.

5. Bus – tenders being evaluated. Public announcement expected in July.

6. Norfolk Pines – report (also not attached to agenda) says trees in good condition and need no work.

7. Service request report – in 10 months (July-April) 89% were dealt with on time, but all 9 “Environmental Health Complaints”, 5 of 31 Wastewater Pump Alarms and, 31 of 41 “Compliance – Unauthorised Activity” calls, were dealt with out of time.

8. Visitor Impact workshop – minutes record “It was agreed that a list of these projects will be prepared and endorsed by the board for future consideration. A report will be prepared for the next meeting to facilitate this discussion.” The agenda says, “The Board may like to consider whether a prioritised list of projects be developed for which discretionary funds can be allocated.”

9. Coastal Reserves minutes of 9 May meeting, but not 11 April. Reserve mowing could be subcontracted to locals. Cycle “Trail construction expected to start in June”. [next meeting Mon 13 Supper Room 5.30pm]

10. Christmas lights will be repaired.

11. Verbal reports on Civil Defence, Cultural Liaison, Placemaking and Communications.

12. Discretionary fund has $5,389. Next deadline for applications 1 July.

The deadline for submissions to the Neighbourhood Parks Reserves Management Plan is Fri 24 June.

Should WED be taking up these, or any other issues? There’s no mention of items previously left unresolved, such as TPPA, or Digital Enablement Plan. Nor does it mention issues such as further delay in the Nihinihi Ave sewage tank completion and closure of the footpath.

Do you think you could do better? Local election nominations are in July and elections in Sep/Oct; in the last two elections WDC has had the lowest voter turnout in the country, so you could win by getting the third who vote in parliamentary elections (but not local elections) voting for you! WED is planning a meeting (and an AGM) to talk about this, probably on Wednesday 6 July, but I’ll send an email nearer the date.

Hope to see you on Monday and Tuesday!

Thanks

John.

Alan Vink alan.vink@slingshot.co.nz;

Bob MacLeod 2louds@paradise.net.nz;

Boyd Turongo Dixon 021 299 2203;

Clint Baddeley jcbaddeley@xtra.co.nz ;

Kelly Murphy kellymoanaclarkson@gmail.com;

Lisa Thomson lisa.rose.thomson1@gmail.com

PJ Haworth peterjohnhaworth@gmail.com