After almost six years of negotiating and eight weeks of refurbishments, the Tahunanui Community Centre finally has a new additional building.
The refurbished building was officially opened on Sunday by Nelson mayor Rachel Reese, councillor Paul Matheson and Pasifika Trust Phil Fa’ave.
Tahunanui Community Centre manager Judy Robinson said it felt great to have the Muritai St facility finally opened.
About 200 people attended the opening yesterday. The building formerly was a St Johns ambulance base and more recently the home of the Pasifika Trust.
Robinson said the building needed a lot of work and it was still not quite finished. It took a small team of very dedicated volunteers about eight weeks to make the building look and feel new, she said.
The council had put in insulation, a new ceiling and installed heat pumps. The centre’s project Tahunanui Connects will move into the new space.
Community activator Katie Hughes said it was looking forward to having local residents leading workshops and activities.
(The Nelson Mail, Monday, October 31st, 2016)
A full-time project manager has been appointed to work on the Waimea dam proposal as the multimillion-dollar plan ramps up a gear.
Natasha Berkett has been employed by irrigator group Waimea Irrigators Ltd, which will carry on the work of Waimea Community Dam Ltd.
The irrigator group is a major proponent of the proposed dam and plans to form a joint venture with Tasman District Council for the project.
The council, which has earmarked $25 million in its Long Term Plan for the scheme, has estimated it could cost $82.5m.
Berkett, who started on Tuesday, comes from the Cawthron Institute where she was coastal and freshwater group manager (policy and planning).
The employment of a project manager was part of Waimea Irrigators’ commitment to the project, Berkett said.
One of the first tasks of her new role was to work on developing a product disclosure statement.
Product disclosure statements have replaced older forms of financial product disclosure information such as investment statements and prospectuses.
The product disclosure statement will provide crucial information for potential equity investors in the dam project, including individual irrigators on the Waimea Plains.
(The Nelson Mail, Monday, October 31st, 2016)
The Nelson Tasman Hospice has found a new site to develop a purpose-built facility in Stoke.
Hospice chief executive Frans Dellebeke said the trust had purchased a 1.4 hectare site in Suffolk Rd, Stoke.
In March, Dellebeke said the hospice needed to find a new site due to the proposed expansion of the Manuka Street Hospital.
He estimated the hospice would need between $10 and $12 million to develop a purpose built facility.
A plan for the new building and a campaign to raise the required funds would be launched in the new year. Dellebeke said he was reluctant to reveal more than that.
The hospice currently serves 144 patients in the Nelson Tasman region and has a 10-bed inpatient unit.
It was hoped the new building would have a similar number of beds, more space for training, administration and accommodation for out-of-town family members of day stay patients.
The hospice currently uses four buildings around Manuka St and it was hoped a new facility would streamline hospital services.
(The Nelson Mail, Tuesday, November 1st, 2016)
Nelson and Tasman homes have both increased in value since this time last year despite tighter loan restrictions, QV registered valuer says.
QV homevalue Nelson Registered Valuer Craig Russell said real estate listing levels remained steady in Tasman but there was no ‘‘usual spring surge’’.
‘‘Listings levels in Nelson are only up slightly in Nelson on last month.’’
The average home price in Nelson city is now $484,019 which is 13.8 per cent more than this time last year. Tasman house prices have surpassed Nelson with the average cost at $485,666. Both prices are more than 20 per cent above the 2007 peak period.
Russell said investors were affected by (loan to value) LVR restrictions which required them to have a 40 per cent deposit for an existing property rather than the 20 per cent needed previously.
‘‘The tighter loan to value restrictions for investors has seen some of the impetus taken out of the market with demand easing slightly over the previous month.
‘‘The lower to median price bracket remains active with first home buyers or cashed up investors looking to take some of the slack left by investors affected by recent LVR changes.’’
Home owners are preferring to build houses from scratch because of the restrictions.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016)
A council-owned sewerage business is seeking consent to continue discharging untreated human waste into public waterways used for swimming and fishing.
The Nelson Regional Sewerage Business Unit (NRSBU) has applied for resource consent for 20 years to ‘‘accidentally’’ discharge raw sewage from four pump stations to land and coastal areas.
The 259-page application to the Nelson City Council outlines risks to public health and the environment, including the contamination of coastal areas used for swimming, fishing and gathering shellfish.
NRSBU general manager Richard Kirby said the consent, a requirement under the city council’s Resource Management Plan, was up for renewal.
The application said that sewage discharges, commonly caused by emergency overflows and accidental pipeline failures, occurred ‘‘very occasionally’’ and ‘‘cannot be predicted’’.
The sewerage infrastructure in Nelson was unable to cope in periods of heavy rain, resulting in overflows from pump stations which were piped to a discharge point on the Waimea Inlet. Power and equipment failures were the other main causes of sewage discharge.
Kirby said the reticulation in Nelson was ‘‘very porous’’, allowing rainwater to get into the sewerage system.
He said discharges caused by heavy rain were generally diluted by the excess water and took up to three days to be flushed away by the tide.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016)
A half-million dollar allocation of Government funding means Nelson’s Stoke School could have two new classrooms by the start of next year.
Nelson MP Nick Smith visited the primary school yesterday following Minister for Education Hekia Parata’s announcement of a $1.5m funding boost for five new classrooms in three Nelson and Blenheim schools.
Stoke School would take roughly a $500,000 cut, Birchwood School another $300,000, with the remaining funds allocated to two classrooms at Whitney Street School in Blenheim.
Schools in the region were experiencing population growth ‘‘and this is having a flow-on effect on school rolls,’’ Parata said in a written statement.
The gated building has been empty since term one this year when the Nelson Playcentres Association decided it was surplus to requirements.
Stoke School’s roll has grown from 140 pupils in 2008 to 260 this year.
This caused the Ministry of Education to mandate the use of an enrolment zone for Stoke, Birchwood and Nayland Primary by 2017.
Board chair Kathy McConnon said that growth was unlikely to slow as new subdivisions were constructed in Stoke.
This funding is part of $882.5m set aside for school properties in the 2016 budget.
A $1m allocation was earmarked for Motueka High School in June and another round of investments is expected in February.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, November 3rd, 2016)
Elderly residents of a Nelson retirement village are in shock after being told that their homes will be demolished to make way for a new development.
Oceania Healthcare, which owns Stoke Retirement Village in Songer St, has announced that it will be tearing down 14 of its one-bedroom units to build eight two-bedroom houses.
Oceania Healthcare sales marketing and village operations manager Jill Birch said six residents were affected by the redevelopment. Several of the onebedroom units were vacant.
Sales and village manager Shelley Marrison broke the news to the residents on Tuesday. They have been given the mandatory 90 days’ notice to vacate their homes.
Birch said Oceania Healthcare had struggled to sell the one-bedroom units for many years.
‘‘The one bedroom units sit on the market for a very long time. People are selling their houses for so much money in the market, they’re not interested in downsizing and downgrading to a onebedroom unit, they want two-bedroom units.’’
Oceania Healthcare planned to sell the new houses under occupation right agreements.
Birch said the resource and building consent process was about to get underway. Oceania Healthcare wanted to notify the residents before any paperwork was filed, she said.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, November 4th, 2016)
Fancy owning your own private beach?
The Golden Bay Holiday Park at Tukurua is for sale with more than six hectares of freehold land, riparian beach rights and a stream.
The riparian rights means the property boundary goes down to the mean high-tide mark so the part of the beach that is owned by the campground is private.
But owning a slice of one of the country’s most picturesque coastlines will not come cheap or easy (unless you win tonight’s Lotto jackpot.) The property has a rateable value of $2.83 million and is already attracting keen interest from overseas buyers.
The park has more than 200 camping sites, seven cabins, two beach houses and a manager’s house.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, November 5th, 2016)
Elderly residents evicted from a Nelson retirement village are facing the ‘‘huge issue’’ of finding affordable rental accommodation in a housing shortage, Age Concern says.
Oceania Healthcare, which owns Stoke Retirement Village in Songer St, announced this week that it was demolishing 14 onebedroom units to build eight twobedroom houses.
At least six residents, who either own or rent the onebedroom units, have been given the mandatory 90 days to find new accommodation and move out.
Age Concern Nelson-Tasman manager Sue Tilby said the news had come as a shock to the residents, some who are aged in their 90s and in poor health.
It was likely that the evicted residents would have to pay more for a rental property outside of the retirement village, Tilby said.
Oceania Healthcare sales marketing and village operations manager Jill Birch said the company had offered to help the affected residents find new accommodation and pay for moving costs.
She said high demand for twobedroom units prompted the redevelopment. Oceania Healthcare planned to sell the new houses under occupation right agreements.
Tilby said if anyone knew of affordable rental accommodation suitable for an older person, they could contact Mal Drummond at Nelson-Tasman Age Concern on 03 544 7624.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, November 5th, 2016)
Irrigators on the Waimea Plains who value their water rights should indicate an intention to affiliate to the proposed Lee Valley dam, says a spokesman for an irrigator group. John Palmer, who does some work for dam proponent Waimea Irrigators Ltd, said indicating an intention to affiliate would not put the water users under any obligation to buy into the proposed dam but it was the ‘‘sensible’’ move.
Palmer’s comments come as Tasman District Council sends application packs for the replacement of expiring water permits to the holders of about 269 consents on the plains.
One of the questions in the pack asks applicants to confirm if it is their ‘‘intention to affiliate’’ their replacement water permits to the dam.
TDC environment and planning manager Dennis Bush-King said the answer would not be binding. The decisions on consent renewals would not be made until later next year ‘‘so there is still time for people to make a decision to affiliate or not’’.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, November 5th, 2016)
Heritage New Zealand has declined a nomination to list the Golden Bay grandstand.
Central region general manager Claire Craig said the grandstand had been a significant community feature for many years and people considered it a local landmark. "We recognise that it does have historical and social value but due to significant modifications over the years, its ability to meet our criteria for a Heritage New Zealand listing has been so affected that the nomination has had to be declined," Craig said.
The Tasman District Council has earmarked the 109-yearold building for demolition to make way for a car park as part of a multimillion-dollar recreation centre now under construction near Takaka.
Heritage NZ received a nomination to list the grandstand from a member of the public. "It is important to state that had the grandstand nomination been accepted and listed on the New Zealand Heritage List / Rarangi Korero, it would not automatically have provided protection," Craig said.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, November 5th, 2016)
”You can't cross the sea merely by standing
and staring at the water.”
Rabindranath Tagore