It will take 600 tonnes of rock and cost about $35,000 to repair the sea wall at Ruby Bay, which took a hammering in a storm that hit the district on February 1.

However, in an at-times fractious meeting at the Mapua Community Hall on Tuesday evening, Tasman district Mayor Richard Kempthorne and some council staff were told by some residents that the wall was not good enough. Those residents called for a better wall.

Council recovery manager Adrian Humphries provided a brief history of the three sections of wall for which there are resource consents until 2044.

If the residents wanted a modified wall, there were a "few hurdles" in the way.

"First off, you need a resource consent and that’s not guaranteed because a lot of people just think we should let the sea do its thing," Humphries said.

However, if the consent was granted, the work might result in people on the seafront losing some land. The financing would also have to be identified.

When a member of the audience suggested the council charge more across the district, Humphries responded: "You’ve got to convince a ratepayer in Tapawera to pay for a sea wall in Ruby Bay."

(The Nelson Mail, Firday 16 February 2018)

Dam proponent Waimea Irrigators Ltd has an obligation to issue an additional 80 water shares a year if the proposed Waimea dam in the Lee Valley, near Nelson, is built.

"So from around 2022," said Waimea Irrigators Ltd (WIL) project manager Natasha Berkett. "This represents an overall target of approximately 4000 total water shares and is a cumulative target – it doesn’t have to be 80 shares exactly every year."

Therefore, WIL intended to continue to offer and market water shares following the close on March 22 of its initial offer, which it launched last Friday.

WIL aims to raise $16.5m of equity via the sale of 3000 water shares at $5500 each. Its initial offer for those shares is outlined in a product disclosure statement (PDS), which reveals the obligation to issue an additional 80 shares a year. The obligation is associated with an expected loan from Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd (CIIL) for WIL.

Berkett said that if WIL did not issue the additional shares, finance charges and operating charges would increase by 2 per cent a year from 2022.

The PDS says that WIL anticipates water shares will be about 15 per cent higher after the close of the initial offer, increasing by about 2 per cent every year thereafter.

(The Nelson Mail, Saturday 17 February 2018)

Due to staff shortages, there will be no Property News produced for Monday 26th February.

Thought for the Week

(Salvador Dali)