Monday, September 10, 2012 • Craig Bauld
WHAT’S ON IN COUNCIL THIS WEEK
COMMITTEE week, so a fair bit of action, albeit at the preliminary level, or within the delegations of the four main standing committees.
Community development Wednesday morning features a number of presentations. Boys’ High assistant principal Tom Cairns is along to talk about the Tu Tane programme. Chamber of Commerce president Gavin Murphy and EC regional business partner Brett Johnson will talk about the regional partner network. Scott McSloy (chair) and Ken Huberts (manager) of Heart of Gisborne will be in to keep us up to date.
The Wainui/Okitu stakeholder mapping exercise returns, this being the early stages of a comprehensive community plan for the area. Don’t ask me why they get a community plan when others don’t, that’s a sore point.
Environment and planning in the afternoon features flood hazard overlays for Sponge Bay and Lloyd George Road, plus the new revised version of a private plan change for Citrus Grove (Makaraka) — though there are some technical reports that may not be ready in time, in which case it might be deferred till the full council meeting in a fortnight. Early stages, the hearings and decision on resource consents is still a wee way ahead.
The bylaw on the keeping of animals, bees and poultry in residential areas is up for review. The setback distance from houses or neighbours for pigs is likely to be increased but as far as I’m aware there aren’t many other issues with the bylaw as it stands. If you have issues, get in touch with the council, or me, or your pet councillor, right now.
Finance on Thursday morning is mainly regular audit and monitoring stuff, I think, but the operations committee in the afternoon has some bits of general interest — including this year’s work programme on public toilets.
They’re looking at providing a unisex toilet at the skateboard park, which should relieve some of the pressure on the Grey Street toilets. In recent years it has been hell for council contractors to keep them clean because of heavy traffic from young people — who aren’t always as careful as they might be. They’re the first port of call for many visitors to Gisborne, and their first experience of local amenities is often not a happy one.
I doubt there’ll be any opposition — if there is argument it will probably be about whether one unisex toilet is sufficient to fix the problem.
Public toilets cost truckloads of ratepayer money to build and maintain but there is a never-ending demand for more. They would cost a lot less if some of our citizens had cleaner habits and better behaviour, but no easy cures for that situation.
Also Blue Waters, I think they’re talking a sewage dump site there for motor homes, caravans, etc.
There are the regular reports from various council divisions, stormwater, wastewater, etc. There’s also a progress report about the rural transfer station changes — costs, hours and so on. Still causing a bit of angst in some quarters, so it may lead to some debate, though the decisions have been made really.
Um, I think that’s the main bits, if you need more info on anything, don’t hesitate to call.