19 February 2023
This meeting was postponed from Tuesday 14/02/2023 because of bad weather.
Present: Paul FitzGerald (chair), Margaret Blair, Mel Galletly, Iain MacLean (minute taker)
Apologies: Lenka Horanska, Moira, Lawler Josh Trlin, Tracy Johnson, Chris Kirk-Burnand, Hikitia Ropata
Council updates
(Provided by email)
Tracy Johnson: There will be consultation with community on Plunket rooms starting soon up. Paul had also asked Tracy whether she had an update on Kainga Ora, however, there have been no updates on the northern growth area involvement.
Hikitea Ropata (GWRC): Suggested that GWRC could engage with RA more, in light of recent serious storms.
Previous minutes
Approval of last minutes: Moved Mel Galletly and seconded Iain MacLean, subject to some minor corrections to text Paul will provide to Moira.
Matters arising from previous minutes
MailChimp mailing list: Iain will send text to other groups (tennis club, RSA and School) encouraging their members to go on our mailing list. Need to state in it these emails will be from the RA chair and used for important community announcements and information, rather than a regular ‘newsletter’.
Financial
Finance Report to February 2023 Meeting as at 9 February 2023
BNZ $ 6854.15
Income: 00 $ 1.16 Interest
$ 152.50 He Ara Garden Party
$ 150.00 He Ara Donation for panel
Expenditure: $ 655.16 CGFF Irrigation system
$ 35.95 CGFF Soaker Hose
$ 120.45 CGFF Fruit Trees
$ 650.00 PCC Heritage Panels x 3
$ 140.24 CGFF Safety Gear
Invoices – Issued $
Invoices – Outstanding $ 35.00 Kōrero
Moved Paul, seconded Mel. Approved.
Margaret and Paul have separated out the previous bank accounts into five separate activity accounts within the RA’s BNZ account. This will make bookkeeping much easier and will give project and subgroup managers access to see accounts.
Margaret to talk to Moira about outstanding advertising invoice (over 3 months in arrears) to include in the next invoice for the first 2023 issue of Kōrero.
Correspondence
- Email from Hoana Turia at Waka Kotahi, with update on SH59. They suggested they visit us to meet the RA. Paul will invite them to the March meeting to open up communications with them.
- Margaret and Paul sent a message to Nick Leggett at Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand complaining about excessing use of engine braking, especially on a still night. Nick said they will issue a reminder to members about it. He also suggested that high petrol prices are increasing truck traffic along the SH59 instead of Transmission Gully, and this will reduce when petrol prices drop.
- Margaret sent photos to Claire Giblin, Josh Trlin and Tracey Johnson at PCC about the poor condition of the footpaths along main road between Weku Road and Takutai Road, and the amount of mud on them that was making them unsafe. She had noticed people walking on main road to avoid walking in the mud. Claire replied to say the two slips affecting the footpath are being managed by Waka Kotahi. They are currently reviewing designs for retaining structures and have committed to keeping the footpaths clear while they work on a longer term solution. Fulton Hogan is doing maintenance maintenance through this section fo the state highway for PCC. They clearing vegetation along the footpaths, unblocked drains and cleaning footpaths before Christmas. However, some areas were missed and PCC is reminding them to do it again.
- Paul received email from Gordon Noble-Campbell about the story he wrote in the Dominion-Post about the deaths of three men on the tunnel collapse. Rail Heritage Trust has offered to pay for, design and install a memorial to the three men and has asked RA if we have a preference where it could be sited. The committee agreed it was appropriate for He Ara to follow this up.
Project updates
He Ara
Facebook Stories
- Jenny McLeod ONZM 1941 – 2022. 563 engagements
- Christmas Day in Pukerua Bay Seventy Years Ago. 145 engagements
- Ngita Woodhouse. 476 engagements
Ngita Woodhouse Panel “Oh! It’s Miss Woodhouse – fabulous gardener.”
He Ara and the Community Garden team co-hosted a Garden Party with fine china, thermette tea and cucumber sandwiches on Anniversary Day to reveal this plaque and celebrate summer. Members of the Woodhouse Garden Club attended and the plaque was revealed by the President. The club kindly donated $150 to He Ara towards the cost of the plaque. The CGFF kindly gave the takings from their sales to He Ara.
Tragedy at Tunnel No. 8 Story in DomPost. Followed up with Paekakariki Station Museum members with suggested sites for a memorial to the three workers. (Re: correspondence about offer of Rail Heritage Trust to design and fund this.)
Google Maps updated with He Ara panel images. Currently unable to place panel images on Google maps if there is no street address.
Northern gun emplacement PCC approached He Ara concerning a new soil embankment that has been piled on northern gun emplacement at the far end of Brendan Beach. Its source and purpose are a mystery.
Kōrero
The first edition of the year is laid out and at final proofing stage. It swill go to print this week and be distributed the weekend of 25 February.
The editorial team has had feedback that advertising income could be tight this year, and propose that we make a grant application to Hutt-Mana Community Trust to help cover printing costs for the next year.
Moved Iain, seconded Mel. Approved.
Iain to ask Moira to provide for budget for the coming year.
EV charging points
PCC not engaging with Meridian on these, so the company is engaging with councils that are interested in installing units (currently planning 100 units in Wellington and Hutt City). PCC hasn’t developed an EV charging strategy for the whole city. Committee discussed what the next steps should be with PCC? Decision was to park it for about three months, until PCC has released its internal climate change strategy before going back to them to ask what’s happening with EV charging points.
Other business
Climate change: Meeting was held on Saturday 18 February, and people at it picked up tasks. These groups will report back partly via a new page on the RA website. The page will be prominent in the top level on the main menu.
Village planning: PCC considered a proposal from officers at this week’s meeting and decided to park the proposal and consider it further in the 2024 LTP. The committee will continue to engage with PCC on this.
Water leaks: Wellington Water team has been out to investigate and repair some leaks. However, some others were not fixed. Margaret suggests that there could be a widespread failure around the Bay of the pipes installed 40 years ago.
Collecting data about leaks and subsidence: Paul suggested we could develop a register of leaks and whether they have been reported and publish this (regularly updated) on the website. This would also note whether they are springs or actual leaks. We will also put information on the website about how to report a problem, along with the list of leaks and subsidence in the village, and create a form for people to tell us about a new one so we can add it to the list.
Committee mailing and phone list: needs to be updated and sent to committee (Iain will update old version and send to Moira).
Update minutes on the website: Jon and Iain to look at that.
Action points
- Paul to provide corrections to December minutes to Moira
- Iain to send information to RSA, tennis club and school encouraging people to join RA mailing list
- Margaret to talk to Moira about outstanding Kōrero invoice
- Paul to invite Waka Kotahi to March meeting to discuss SH59 future
- Iain to ask Moira to send budget for coming year
- Iain to update members contact list and send to Moira
- Jon and Iain to update previous minutes on website
Meeting finished 3:35pm.
Next meeting 14 March 2023.