Word from the Mayor
It would remiss of me not to acknowledge the community of Amberley and beyond from the recent tyre fire. I was informed of the fire at 3.20pm on the Friday afternoon and was on site by 4pm. It was confronting to witness and appreciate the concern of those close by of what they were experiencing. I would like to pay tribute to the fire fighters from near and far who placed themselves in the “line of fire” to protect property. What I observed were the fire teams working in unison under extreme heat conditions.
I appreciate that those who live and work adjacent to the site have concerns in regard to their personal and animal wellbeing.
Given that a solution was about to be realised for the tyre removal it is now critical that you are aware of the remediation details. To provide an opportunity a public meeting was hosted at very short notice on Saturday 30th and a subsequent meeting will be held on Thursday 11th February 6pm at the Tin Shed in Amberley. I trust many of you will follow the regular updates on the HDC website that are received from ECan and CDHB.
On Friday 5th February I attended the Canterbury Mayoral forum when we met with the Chairs from each Runanga across Canterbury this was an opportunity to begin to build, or further develop our relationship with Ngai Tahu. In the Hurunui we work with both Takiwa – Te Ngai Tuahuriri at Tuahiwi who cover south to the Hurunui River and Te Runanga o Kaikoura who cover from the Hurunui River north.
At council we continue to develop the Long Term Plan this is an important piece of work that will shape up how we provide the services you expect with a longer vision lens to cover a 10 year period 2021-2031. We are also keeping a very close eye on Central Governments 3 waters reform and how this will impact on our rural district.
Canterbury Mayoral forum is coming up in Timaru, Cr Michael Ward and Cr Pauline White will attend with me at the Zone meeting in Wanaka in March and Deputy Mayor Vince Daly will accompany me to Wellington for the Rural and Provincial meeting, it is critical we attend to keep abreast of the pending changes 3 waters reform, the RMA and climate change to mention a few.
We are working very hard as a council to reflect the desirable outcomes that you all expect and I am grateful to the hard-working team that helps us to achieve this.
As typical to our district there is some great events coming up with Refill your cup on 24th February, the Rural support Trust presentation of Nigel Latta on 10 March in Omihi on and the Waiau community are to host Matt Chisholm on the 10 April and through March the A @ P shows in Amuri, Cheviot and Hawarden. How lucky are we??