Word from the Mayor
There are many local projects that are driven by local volunteers with the vision of making their community a better place. The Waiau Hall officially opened its doors following an extensive renovation since the earthquake of 2016, this is a great example of community pulling together to achieve a magnificent result. The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs team have been assisting with the Rotherham Track, an initiative created from the Positively Rotherham project it is focused on making the track safer and more accessible for locals to enjoy, and further south, the Amberley District Residents Association have been supportive of a community initiative to provide a much requested reuse store, they have finally found the perfect location which will be named “Mollie’s Place”. The community team at Hurunui District Council have worked alongside these wonderful projects but primarily they have been led by the community champions. Mollie’s Place has been named in memory of Mollie Anderson who was a pioneer of recycling in Amberley. The shop will be found at 97 Carters Road and is hoping to be open to the public by the end of April. These are three great examples of community working together to achieve goodness for all.
A significant part of councillors’ workload is being consumed by the Long Term Plan which is due for adoption this month, we plan to come to town near you and invite your thoughts and opinions on the draft plan. As many of you will be aware it maps the future consideration of our district allowing for planning and growth.
The other significant item that is taking a lot of our time is the Governments Three Waters reform, this has the potential to have the biggest impact, effecting the delivery of drinking water, and the management of waste water and stormwater. The current proposal is to take water assets, mainly pipes away from local government and roll them into a handful of large water entities. Minister Mahuta said that “the work is difficult, complex and urgent” “it involves transformational change to the way we receive our water and what happens to it after we have used it”. I along with other Mayors are hoping to persuade the Government that the pace and urgency of the water reforms should be slowed, the pressure is massive. We are still waiting to hear what the proposal will be and therefore are unable to analyze the risk or benefit to change or status quo. We must understand the impact to make any decision and for the moment there remain more questions than answers. Central Government is proposing to have 3 waters and RMA reforms legislated before the end of 2022 this will significantly change how we operate as a council – it is important to me that we are all well informed to ensure the best outcome for the Hurunui District is achieved.