May 2017

Muri Road safety improvements — community feedback wanted

Pukerua Bay Residents Association is working with Muri Road residents and Porirua City Council to improve aspects of road and pedestrian safety along Muri Road.

We’re after feedback by the end of the first week in June before 28 May.

In early 2016, we asked Muri Road residents to take part in a survey on how Muri Road could be made safer for everyone.

They told us that they wanted lighting along the road improved, some form of footpath and to reduce the speed of cars using the road.

With this information we put in a successful bid to the Council for funding to undertake a village planning project for 2016/17 to make changes that would improve road and pedestrian safety.

This document outlines proposed work to improve lighting, walkability and the speed of cars along Muri Road. It also outlines some opportunities for other work that could be done at the same time.

Please study this document and provide any feedback on this form by the end of the first week in June before 28 May.

It can be dropped into the letterbox at 84 Muri Road or dropped back to the Council’s Village Planning Team at the main administration building in Cobham Court.

Feel free to discuss this project with us (Iain MacLean 027 420 3056, iain@maclean.name or Pauline Morse 239 9838) or with the Council’s Village Planning team who can be contacted through the main Council number 237-5089.

Your feedback will be incorporated into development of the final plan and we will be in touch to outline the next steps. …

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Food forest garden working bee!

Hi folks, it’s really happening! Let’s all catch up tomorrow at 10 am (see event details) and meet and greet. We have our garden plan (PDF) to work from, and we need to mark out where the things will go, who has access to what resources, and what we can get started with first.

Things to do

New gate and mulched grass.

The council have already mown and mulched the site for us, so that’s the first thing done from the list of tasks in the plan. Likely candidates for things we can start doing are:

  • Construct the composting station. There’s a nice easy way to build this out of used pallets.
  • Construct some initial allotment beds: 3-4 raised beds, 1.2 – 3 metres, over winter, ready for spring planting. Sleeper timbers or similar (driftwood?) required.
  • Minor earthworks, to cut 20-30 cm swale steps along contours in places. I think we’ll need a bobcat for this, or it’s a large amount of manual spade labour. We may be able to engage the council here.
  • Plant nursery trees (tagasaste, lavender) to improve the soil, fix nitrogen and shelter later tree plantings.
  • Plant some of the orchard tree species that are tolerant of wind and poor soil (feijoa, bamboo, apple varieties “Irish Peach” and “Priscilla”).

We are currently investigating the option to move one of the old shelter buildings from the closed Muri Station onto the site, to use as the potting/tool shed, and the council are willing to provide a water tank for garden and Civil Defence use.

Things to bring

  • Gumboots (required),
  • enthusiasm (required), and optionally:
  • measuring tape,
  • a spade,
  • pencil and paper,
  • any plants you’d like to donate; at this stage we only envisage planting Tagasaste (Cytisus proliferus), Lavender (Lavendula dentata), or Feijoa (Acca sellowiana), and
  • if someone could bring a drone so we can get a top-down photograph, that would be super-fantastic and help with mapping and plotting.

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Pukerua Bay Train Station opening

 

Join us in celebrating the new METLINK station shelter (funded and installed by GWRC), and heritage signs at the Pukerua Bay Railway Station on Saturday the 27th of May at 10am.  Mayor Mike Tana will present and open the archway and reveal the new Heritage Sign on the platform.  All Pukerua Bay residents and visitors are warmly invited to attend.

For further details about the event, please click here.

Background: The Pukerua Bay Residents Association has worked tirelessly in partnership with Porirua City Council to provide a beautiful new wooden archway and historical information sign.

The timbers used in this sign and the others to be installed, come from the Airlie Road over-bridge which was originally built in 1937 and demolished in 2010.

We invite you to share your memories, memorabilia or materials relating to Pukerua Bay. These will complete the research that has been done so the final map can be drawn. Please contact Margaret Blair on 021 1373 263 or pukeruaheritage@gmail.com.

 

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Predator-free Pukerua Bay March and April 2017 update

This month’s update (PDF) is published on behalf of the Predator Free Pukerua Bay project. If you are interested in participating, email predatorfreepkb@gmail.com for more information.

Autumn is definitely with us now – longer, cooler nights means that rats and mice are looking for warmer lodgings. It’s a great time to check your roof cavities and out-buildings for signs of rats and mice and place traps accordingly. We had great success at our house just by moving our trap into the garden shed (previously, it was just outside by the shed door): we caught a mouse and a rat that very night! We have also heard of others putting a little bit of bait at the tunnel entrance as a lure, which has been successful.

March and April’s 2017’s reported catches

March and April’s catch numbers continue to increase.

Total reported catches since 12 November 2016: 262 rats; 375 mice; 10 mustelids (all in the Scientific Reserve); and 32 hedgehogs.

Welcome on board to our newest trappers! At the end of April, we have 102 properties involved in Predator-free Pukerua Bay (about 14 percent of all Pukerua Bay properties). All of the original 90 traps/tunnels provided by the Department of Conservation have now been sponsored – what a great effort from the community! …

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Community food forest garden access is ready

Good news! There is now sensible access along the Muri Station platform and a new gate into our new community garden / food forest area on Muri Reserve. The council have provided us with a mains water connection and have mown and mulched the grass on the site ready for planting.

We would like to run an opening and working bee this weekend. There’s plenty to do, and there is an initial list of jobs in our short term annual garden plan. Any and all donations of time, materials, tools or required professional services will be gratefully received.

Iif you are interested in participating please get in touch with the RA secretary via the Contact Us page!

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April 2017 Residents’ Association meeting minutes

Present: Iain MacLean, June Penhey, Kate Dreaver, Brian Sullivan, Paul FitzGerald, Rebecca Davis, Dale Williams (PCC), Tamsin Evans (PCC), Graham Grieve (PCC), Beverley Wakem (PCC), Anita Baker (PCC).
Community: Peter Roach, Aimee Porteners.
Apologies: Pauline Morse, Jonathan Harker, Justine McDermott. …

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