Latest news with #GreaterWellingtonRegionalCouncil
RNZ News
4 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Wellington regional council demands answers from KiwiRail over Wairarapa line disruption
Waterloo train station. New Metlink buses first business day in operation, some delays to services. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King The head of Greater Wellington Regional Council is describing disruption on the Wairarapa train line as a "continual pain day in and day out". The route between the capital and Masterton has been plagued by issues for the first half of this year. For 46 days between 26 December and 10 February, Wairarapa commuters had all their trains replaced by buses due to KiwiRail renewing tracks in the Remutaka Tunnel and other maintenance. In February RNZ reported that just 17 percent of Wairarapa's trains were on time for most of February. Two months later in April that improved to just under half the services being on time (42.7 percent). Greater Wellington Regional Council have pointed to several issues that have caused disruption. The first was that there was a lack of staff on the Wairarapa line which had necessary specialised training for the Remutaka Tunnel which had resulted in three services a week being bus replaced till further notice. The second was that the regional council believed the number of infrastructure issues such as points failures and signal faults had become a near-daily occurrence on the line and rail work causing delays for trains. Those responsibilities sit with KiwiRail which triggered the regional council to write a please explain letter to the rail company. In that letter the council states the state of the line was "unsustainable" and underminded public confidence. Regional council chair Daran Ponter told RNZ he would be less concerned if he could see improvement on the horizon. "We're just seeing continual pain day in, day out. I get a situation report on the Wairarapa line every working day of the week. "That picture and those situation reports really hasn't changed at all over almost a three-month period." Ponter said he was frustrated for commuters that this disruption had happened after the Remutaka tunnel work. "This set of new problems that we seem to have walked in [to] makes those sacrifices that they made in the December and January period all for nothing really." He acknowledged that the staffing issues needed to be improved but that the infrastructure issues which he said included "rusty rails" laid with KiwiRail's responsibility. RNZ has approached KiwiRail, and Transdev which staffs the services, for comment. At a council meeting on Thursday regional councillors will discuss the possibility not charging for the services that have been bus replaced until further notice. It would also look at offering free services at least one way on the Wairarapa line for a short period of time. Council staff have not recommended the latter option due to issues such as the creation of a precedent and that it could encourage people to use the line at a time where it was not working well.
NZ Herald
20-05-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Council's wastewater plan for Pain Farm faces backlash in Martinborough
The planner who spoke on behalf of the council argued that because the council 'owned' the land and had a resource consent, consideration of alternative sites, routes or methods was not considered necessary. But submitter Alison Clements said the council's resource consent, granted by the Greater Wellington Regional Council in 2016, was 'not worth the paper it's written on'. 'South Wairarapa District Council does not 'own' Pain Farm, and it has no right to use the land as though it were a council asset to be used for council purposes. 'It holds the Pain Farm land but it does not own it. It is the trustee.' The Pain Farm was bequeathed to the former Martinborough Borough Council by George Pain in 1932 to be used as 'a sports ground for the residents of Martinborough and as a playground for the children'. A 1966 court order meant income generated from the land could be used to fund park, sport and recreation activities in Martinborough. It is currently operating as a farm and is the site of the Martinborough Transfer Station. Clements said the council had a legal duty to operate the trust 'strictly in accordance with the trust terms; and for the sole benefit of the trust's beneficiaries'. 'A trustee must not use trust assets for self-use. That would be a conflict of interest, as well as a violation of the terms of the trust and of the law.' She said George Pain's desire for the land to be a sportsground and a playground for children 'could not be further away from the council's proposal to use the land as a place to distribute wastewater'. She asked the independent commissioner, David McMahon, to reject the proposed designation. McMahon said it was not within his jurisdiction to rule on trust matters but asked the council to come back with clarity on whether it had 'an interest in the land sufficient for undertaking the work' as per the Resource Management Act. He suggested the council 'volunteer' some conditions of the designation and further justify why a designation was needed to 'authorise works over and above what is already authorised by the regional council consent'. Any ability to implement a consent would depend on land ownership matters being resolved, he said. Submitter Jenny Boyne, who spoke on behalf of her mum, Beverley Clark, said the Pain Farm was the 'golden goose for the children of Martinborough'. If the land was to become 'a disposal field for the town's waste, the income from the land would be slashed as the land will not be sought after for cropping or finishing livestock for export'. She said an alternative solution to using the Pain Farm land was that the council could call for expressions of interest from other landowners 'if they would like to use the treated wastewater to irrigate their gardens or green spaces', or to pipe the treated wastewater to irrigate the Martinborough Golf Club. 'My mum lives directly across the road from Pain Farm and has lived there for 26 years and in the Martinborough Ward for 66 years and is prepared to make a stand and say, 'not in my backyard'.' Decisions on designations would be made at a later date.
Scoop
20-05-2025
- General
- Scoop
From ‘Golden Goose' To Wastewater Site: Farm Plan Sparks Debate
South Wairarapa District Council has been accused of breaching its duties as a trustee of Pain Farm. At a Wairarapa Combined District Plan hearing on Monday, submitters pushed back on the council's request to designate the gifted farmland for the operation, maintenance, and improvement of a wastewater disposal facility. One submitter described the farm as a "golden goose for children" of Martinborough, and did not want the council to use it as a dumping site for the town's treated wastewater. By law, for a designation to be granted, the council should give adequate consideration to alternative sites, routes, or methods of undertaking the work 'if the requiring authority does not have an interest in the land sufficient for undertaking the work'. The planner who spoke on behalf of the council argued that because the council 'owned' the land and had a resource consent, consideration of alternative sites, routes, or methods was not considered necessary. But submitter Alison Clements said the council's resource consent, granted by the Greater Wellington Regional Council in 2016, was 'not worth the paper it's written on'. 'South Wairarapa District Council does not 'own' Pain Farm, and it has no right to use the land as though it were a council asset to be used for council purposes. 'It holds the Pain Farm land but it does not own it. It is the trustee." Pain Farm was bequeathed to the former Martinborough Borough Council by George Pain in 1932 to be used as 'a sports ground for the residents of Martinborough and as a playground for the children'. A 1966 court order meant income generated from the land could be used to fund park, sport, and recreation activities in Martinborough. It is currently operating as a farm and is the site of the Martinborough Transfer Station. Clements said the council had a legal duty to operate the trust 'strictly in accordance with the trust terms; and for the sole benefit of the trust's beneficiaries'. 'A trustee must not use trust assets for self-use. That would be a conflict of interest, as well as a violation of the terms of the trust, and of the law.' She said George Pain's desire for the land to be a sports ground, and a playground for the children, 'could not be further away from the council's proposal to use the land as a place to distribute waste water'. She asked the independent Commissioner David McMahon to reject the proposed designation. McMahon said it was not within his jurisdiction to rule on trust matters but asked the council to come back with clarity on whether it had 'an interest in the land sufficient for undertaking the work' as per the Resource Management Act. He suggested the council 'volunteer' some conditions of the designation and further justify why a designation was needed to 'authorise works over and above what is already authorised by the regional council consent'. Any ability to implement a consent would depend on land ownership matters being resolved, he said. Submitter Jenny Boyne, who spoke on behalf of her mum Beverley Clark, said Pain Farm was the 'golden goose for the children of Martinborough'. If the land was to become 'a disposal field for the town's waste, the income from the land would be slashed as the land will not be sought after for cropping or finishing livestock for export". She said an alternative solution to using the Pain Farm land was that the council could call for expressions of interest from other landowners 'if they would like to use the treated wastewater to irrigate their gardens or green spaces', or to pipe the treated wastewater to irrigate the Martinborough Golf Club. 'My mum lives directly across the road from Pain Farm and has lived there for 26 years and in the Martinborough Ward for 66 years, and is prepared to make a stand and say, 'not in my backyard'." Decisions on designations would be made at a later date.
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘I've woken up with them on my face': Portuguese millipede infestation horrifies Wellington
At a visitor centre on the south coast of New Zealand's capital, the blustery, briny wind is no match for the smell of thousands of decaying millipedes, which reek like decomposing vermin and rotting fish. Along the streets of Wellington's Ōwhiro Bay, dead curled up millipedes are piled up on the footpath, as live ones march along the street. One resident says her neighbours collected five rubbish bags worth of the creatures in a week from around their home. 'You're constantly on guard. These things are everywhere,' Georgia Osborne says. 'There have been times I've woken up with a millipede on my face.' The infestation of Portuguese millipedes in the southern suburbs of Wellington has now become so bad that people are likening it to a 'horror movie', as they are forced to sweep away hundreds of the putrid-smelling critters from their homes and gardens each day. The problem has become so bad that residents have called on authorities for help. Osborne says the millipedes are attracted to light and the large street lamp outside her rental property lures them in by the thousands. 'The entire deck, the footpath, everything just swarms … every night we're out there with a spray can trying to get rid of them.' Osborne tries to avoid crushing them, because doing so produces a 'yellowy- fluorescent' secretion that can stain, as well as an awful crunch and a 'really bitter, pungent smell'. 'It's really gross,' Osborne says. 'It's very alien-esque.' The introduced millipedes are thought to have hitched a ride on ships or planes to New Zealand from Australia, where the creatures have similarly invaded homes and have even been blamed for causing train collisions. The small glossy black arthropods can grow between 20mm and 45mm in length and lay between 60 and 80 eggs at a time. They have no natural predators in New Zealand. Biosecurity NZ says little is known about their ecological impact on the country's native flora and fauna. The millipedes are believed to have been in the Wellington area for about 20 years and have been identified in a number of regions, it said. But in the city's southern suburbs the problem has reached plague proportions. The millipedes have been present for a couple of months so far – longer than previous seasons, according to a local woman near the visitor centre. 'When they were in full force, they were mating and nesting up all the corners of the building, all up the walls,' she says. 'It's like something out of a horror movie. They were just everywhere, covering everything.' She now worries the millipedes will stow away on campervans that visit the popular tourist spot and spread around the country. This season seems to be worse than usual, but the problem has been growing for years, another resident says. Locals are becoming increasingly frustrated the authorities are doing nothing to help manage the critters, she said. '[We're] saying 'help, help'… and nothing,' she said. David Hipkins, Greater Wellington Regional Council's acting environment group manager, said the council had had two reports about the millipedes from two residents on the south coast, and it was not planning on managing the species. 'Portuguese millipedes are not listed as pests in the plan, so we do not have the mandate to formally monitor populations or undertake control efforts,' he said. 'Should millipede populations appear to be increasing in extent across the region, Greater Wellington may consider reviewing our response and the plan.' Nureddin Abdurahman, a councillor for Paekawakawa/Southern ward, said residents in Southgate, Island Bay and Ōwhiro Bay had all reported infestations of millipedes and the problem was only going to get worse. 'Everyone is really frustrated with getting no response from local and central agencies and I'm joining … with them in calling for collaborative action.' Abdurahman said the millipedes should be urgently listed as pests and be researched, monitored and contained, and that residents needed financial support to manage the infestation. Until then, the plague continues. 'I can't seem to escape them,' one resident said. 'They are even in my dreams … or should I say nightmares.'
