Whiringa-ā-nuku (October) 2019 WBRA Newsletter
Kia ora e te whānau. Well, there's been no doubt about it being spring: cold, hot, grey, rain, blue skies, gales, coughs, colds and holidays. The lupin's in bloom. The river has cut through its big loop to flow more directly to the sea. Whitebaiters have been out every day, and with Labour Weekend coming up we're starting to look forward to the summer season.
In this newsletter …
- Local Body elections
- Fires and smoke
- Spinifex and pīngao
- How to report issues to the Council
- Changes to State Highway 1
- Road speed changes at Waikawa Beach
- Property news
- Subscriptions and membership details
- Do you know: we're growing
Local Body elections
Elected for Horowhenua District Council: Mayor — Bernie Wanden. Councillors for Waiopehu — Wayne Bishop and Christine Mitchell.
Elected for Horizons Regional Council: Horowhenua — Sam Ferguson and Emma Clarke.
MidCentral District Health Board: Heather Browning, Vaughan Dennison, Lew Findlay, Muriel Hancock, Karen Naylor, John Waldon and Jenny Warren.
Fires and smoke
The rules about open fires have changed. Fires on the beach are still prohibited at all times. You may now have an open fire on your own property provided you check the fire season status and follow certain requirements. One key requirement is that smoke must not go beyond the boundaries of your own property. Smoke complaints should be made immediately to Horowhenua District Council. See Fires and smoke at Waikawa Beach for more detail.
Spinifex planting underway by the old The Beach is a Road sign.
Spinifex and pīngao
A couple of dozen volunteers turned out over two weekends to plant around 3,500 spinifex and pīngao plants supplied by Horowhenua District Council. Read more at Spinifex and pīngao were planted. Council staff also volunteered their own time to help. The Council spent about $5,000 on the plants which will help hold the sand and grow Waikawa Beach.
How to report issues to the Council
Once upon a time there was an app you could use. However, Cr Mitchell alerted us to the Council's decision to stop using the app. Now you should just email or call the Council, or use their online form. Read more at How to report problems to Horowhenua District Council. Note that the Council should respond with a Customer Reference number. You should keep that number so you can follow up if necessary (it often is necessary). It's also useful if you can notify the WBRA about any issues you've alerted the Council to.
Changes to State Highway 1
NZTA have changes in progress for SH1 between Ōtaki and Levin. They've closed the southbound passing lane just north of Ōtaki and are reviewing speed limits and looking at other options. Read more at Safety improvements on SH1 - your comments and Passing lane near Ōtaki to be closed.
Meanwhile a tiny step forward has been made on the Expressway between Ōtaki and Levin — NZTA aim to undertake a detailed business case and designation. See Expressway next steps have been funded.
Road speed changes at Waikawa Beach
Contractors have been replacing speed limit signs as a consequence of the recent road speed changes. Now the full length of Waikawa Beach Road is 80 Kph so the 100 Kph signs have been removed. On leaving the village we see a new 80 Kph sign, in a different location, a few hundred metres further East.
The WBRA has long asked for the sign to be relocated to that position, but we've always been told that was impossible because of legal requirements. Given that the contractors have failed to replace the cautionary "50 Kph coming up" sign with a proper speed limit sign, it seems likely someone will change this before long.
Meanwhile new 60 Kph signs appeared at the start of Strathnaver Drive. Initially too, signs with 60 on one side and 50 on the other were placed by the lakes at the corner of Strathnaver Drive and Reay Mackay Grove. They were simply wrong, as both roads are now 60 Kph. Those signs were soon replaced with 60/60 signs which are totally redundant.
Village exit speed sign - 80 Kph.
Village entrance speed signs - 50 Kph coming up.
Property news
A couple of properties have sold or come up for sale recently.
Sections for sale: approx 169 Strathnaver Drive, 101 Emma Drive. Houses for sale: 42A Strathnaver Drive, 80 Reay Mackay Grove. House for rent: 111 Strathnaver Drive. Sold: 50 Strathnaver Drive, 24 Uxbridge Terrace.
Subscriptions and membership details
The new financial year for the WBRA has begun and that means it's time to pay your subs. We have a couple of changes this year: we've set up a service that will allow us to send receipts. A few people have asked for that but until now it just hasn't really been feasible.
We're also trying to make sure our Waikawa Beach database is up-to-date. A lot has changed over the years and the database has some dark and dusty corners with outdated or missing info.
Please visit waikawabeach.org.nz/subs-form/ to send us your current contact details (and sub payment date) so we can make sure our membership list is up-to-date.
Subs this year are the same as last year: $25.
Pay online to account 03 0667 0268929 000. Please include your name and beach address so we know who's paid. There's not a lot of space on the bank form, so it also helps if you fill in the form mentioned above or email wbra.committee@gmail.com with your name, beach address, postal address, email address and date of payment so we can make sure our records are completely up to date.
Or, post a cheque to E White, PO Box 30309, Lower Hutt. However you pay your subscription be sure to include your beach address and name.
Do you know: we're growing
The Horowhenua district had 33,261 people living in it as ‘usually resident’ in March 2018, an increase of 10.5% since the previous census in 2013, or an average increase of two% per year for those years. And we can see by all the new development in Strathnaver and the Emma Drive area that at least some of those people are new to Waikawa Beach. Say Hi if you see them, and encourage them to join the Association.
Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua. — Care for the land, care for the people and go forward.
Ngā mihi nui,
Miraz Jordan