Latest news with #Greymouth
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
King's Birthday Honours: Veteran police officer Terri Middleton honoured for work with victims
Senior Constable Terri Middleton. Photo: Police / Supplied A police officer made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in Monday's King's Birthday Honours says she is humbled and deeply honoured to be recognised. Greymouth's Senior Constable Terri Middleton is a school community officer. Over more than three decades, police in a statement said she had worked with victims of child abuse and family harm, in drug education, helping youngsters in and out of school, with the Blue Light charity and inside the Gloriavale community. She joined the police in 1991, and spent most of the first decade of her career as an interviewer and investigating child abuse. In 2002 she became the West Coast school community officer, and was "instrumental in delivering education and prevention initiatives into all West Coast schools, as well as volunteering thousands of hours to local organisations, sporting clubs and charity events". "It is a privilege to be involved in so many people's life experiences," she said. "I am passionate about helping people and trying to make a difference and for this to happen you need to be well supported by others." Senior Constable Terri Middleton. Photo: Police / Supplied Middleton thanked the police leadership team and colleagues, as well as her family. "I very much want to thank them as I know it isn't easy for any family to have a police officer in the mix - there are definitely some challenges. I very much appreciate their love and support as I couldn't do my job without them." Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said it was "impossible to count the lives Middleton has changed for the better, or quantify the harm prevented by her engagement with some of the most vulnerable people in our society". "I'm proud of the great work our people do every day to support their communities and, as a former Tasman District Commander, especially proud to see this honour go to a Tasman colleague who exemplifies the very best of community policing." Other work Middleton had been involved in included chairing the West Coast Blue Light branch since 2010, preventing drug use and being the West Coast health and safety area representative for the Police Association and a welfare officer. She led engagement with the school principal of Gloriavale Christian Community, which "led to a multi-agency response of active engagement with Gloriavale, enabling her to build trust and co-deliver a range of initiatives that would otherwise have not been introduced to the young people of the community", police said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
'It stinks' - Weary Grey District locals gear up for another round in dump fight
Mayor Tania Gibson, with Adrian van Dorp, is worried about the district's water supply. Photo: LDR/Lois Williams The Grey District Council will need to spend at least $60,000 to make its case against the latest resource consent application by the Taylorville Resource Park . Mayor Tania Gibson says the council will not give up the fight against what it sees as a future threat to its $20-million water supply from the private landfill. TRP Ltd has applied to the Regional Council for consent to discharge contaminated water - a mix of stormwater and landfill leachate - from a retention pond to land, and groundwater outside the dump site. The discharge site sits above a water supply intake, which supplies drinking water to Greymouth. The application is being processed on a limited notification basis, and only the GDC, Te Runanga o NgatiWaewae and two neighbours of the landfill are considered affected parties with the right to formally oppose or support it. One of those neighbours is WCRC chair, Peter Haddock. "Tonkin and Taylor have given us an estimate for the work the council will have to do for our submission, and we'll need to present at the hearing , then our lawyers are involved, that's why we've said $60,000 and it could be more." That was a cost to the community that ratepayers could ill-afford, Gibson said. "No-one's coming to save us but ourselves. But it's just diabolical to have to fight this when we don't want them discharging to water and land above our water treatment plant. " The mayor met with Taylorville residents on Tuesday, to tell them what the council was planning to do, she said. "They are pretty devastated and upset. But we have to fight this with facts, not emotion. We are going to go in with as much specific technical information as we can and we will need to engage someone with that knowledge. " The GDC's independent water testing had shown contaminant levels rising in the road drains and groundwater near the dump, Gibson said. TRP Ltd is about to apply for a more comprehensive resource consent , for a Class 2 landfill, which would allow it to expand and take a wider range of waste materials as of right and has asked for that application to be publicly notified. It had applied for the current consent as an interim measure last September but the council was only now getting around to processing it, a company spokesperson said. For residents living near the dump, the prospect of fighting the major Class 2 consent is daunting. Adrian and Christine Van Dorp, who can see the operation from a bank on their lifestyle block, are considered affected parties. "We've been sent three hundred pages of stuff to wade through to make a submission and I can't see how we're going to stop this, but we can at least try to stop them expanding." The application states that any effects on groundwater will be less than minor and it would be impossible for contaminants to find their way into the Grey River. But the Van Dorps say it's beyond belief that the dump was ever consented in the first place. Adrian Van Dorp neighbours the Taylorville Resource Park, a private landfill, which has applied to the regional council for consent to discharge contaminated water. Photo: LDR When former Regional Council Andrew Robb subdivided his adjoining farmland five years ago, neighbours were given no warning that the land would become a landfill, Adrian Van Dorp said. The current Regional Council chair, Peter Haddock also owns undeveloped land next to the landfill and is considered an affected party. "We're all interested to see what he submits," Adrian Van Dorp said. "There are 28 of us living around here and the damn thing is a blight on the neighbourhood. It's affected property values and it literally stinks. "When the winds blowing one way we get it - and the smell makes you feel sick. When it blows the other way our neighbours across the terrace get it. " Haddock was asked for his views and told LDR the submission period on the short-term consent had been extended and he was considering the available information. The company in its application submits that any discharges would have less than minor effects on waterways. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
27-05-2025
- RNZ News
Murderer Peter Carrington to stay in prison after over two decades behind bars
First published on By Sharon Davis , Westport News Peter Douglas Carrington was 32-years-old when he was sentenced to life in prison. Photo: 123RF A man given a life sentence for a brutal rape and murder of an elderly Punakaiki woman in 2022 will spend at least another 18 months in jail. Peter Douglas Carrington was 32-years-old when he was sentenced to life in prison in the Greymouth High Court on 16 June, 2002, for the murder of a 73-year-old Punakaiki resident, Mya Sollis. Carrington appeared before the Parole Board via audio-visual link for a hearing on Tuesday. He was not expecting release but wanted progress made toward his eventual release. Carrington was born with a genetic condition with an extra x chromosome known as Klinefelter's syndrome. He told the board he had been getting testosterone injections every four weeks for 41 years. Following blood tests a few years ago, he'd increased the testosterone dose, which had improved his mood and made him more talkative and open to learning. "I'm open to taking about my issues. I'm totally different. I'm not hostile to women anymore, or people in general. I give them respect. I never respected them back then." Carrington told the parole panel that "he'd missed out on a hell of a lot" being in jail. When he was released he planned to stay away from drugs and alcohol, which had played a part in his earlier offending. Parole panel member and forensic psychiatrist Dr Jeremy Skipworth said the main concern of Parole Board members was how Carrington would react under stress. In response to questions from Dr Skipworth, Carrington said the most stressful thing he'd faced in the last decade was being hassled and picked on, and being abused and assaulted. "Having to look over my shoulder every day I go out," Carrington said. Pressed for his reaction to that, Carrington said he felt mainly hate. "I want to do them in, beat them up. Just to get them off my back." Carrington said he would talk to a support person or family member if he felt at risk. He said he did not have any misconduct charges while in jail but had come close once. Asked about that incident, Carrington said he could not remember. The board said Carrington had made good progress over the years he had been in prison but needed to do more work. This including wider social integration in a controlled environment to test his safety plan and the risk of further offending before he could be released. Carrington will appear before the Parole Board again in November 2026. Mya Sollis' body was found in the grass on McMillans Beach, Punakaiki, on January 16, 2002, by a conservation worker moving an abandoned ATV above the high-tide line. Sollis had been stabbed 11 times, including in both eyelids, as well as her neck and face. Her trousers were partly down. Carrington admitted dragging her into flax and attacking her. His pocket-knife was discovered in the Punakaiki River some days after the murder. An autopsy showed Sollis died from blood loss. The Punakaiki murder was not Carrington's first. In August 1988 he killed an 81-year-old woman in his hometown of Oamaru. He sexually violated her and hit her on the head with a brick. He was sentenced to seven years jail. Carrington has been eligible for parole since January 2012. He has been denied parole numerous times because the Parole Board believed there was a risk Carrington would reoffend. - Westport News
RNZ News
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Regional Wrap goes to Runanga - carver Rob Dykes Law
A few week's back Culture101 heard from a listener, sculptor Rob Dykes Law in Rapahoe. "I have just glued a pounamu serpentine crest, to a 24cm onewa patu with lizard face carved on one half. Mezoamerican influence, " Rob txted. "I have my door open, sitting, its raining, with mist, a weka is walking by. Tourists are flying past at break neck speed in their cars." Rapahoe is just outside Runanga north of Greymouth in Te Tai o Poutini, the South Island's West Coast. There Dykes Law is part of a fledgling carvers group, all graduates of Te Tai o Poutini Polytechnic. He has exhibited at Greymouth's Left Bank Art Gallery and Shades of Jade. He joins us for our Regional Wrap.
RNZ News
08-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
DOC says permanent Pike River site memorial in works as feature film to premier
Newly released image for 'Pike River'. Photo: Supplied / Matt Grace The Department of Conservation says its aiming for a permanent memorial at the Pike River Mine site, designed with some of the families of those killed in the 2010 disaster, to be complete by the end of summer. It comes as the Pike River feature film, based on the November 2010 explosion, will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival next month ahead of its release in New Zealand later this year. Department of Conservation (DOC) Greymouth district operations manager Chris Hickford said it had been working with families on a memorial pavilion design for Pike River. The mine site was handed over to the Department of Conservation in 2022 and it became part of the Paparoa National Park, with DOC the point of contact for the families on all matters relating to the mine. A tender for the pavilion's construction is currently out on the Government Electronic Tender Service for submissions and closes on Friday. Hickford said it's hoped construction would begin later this year, and be complete by the end of the summer. Photo: Supplied / Matt Grace Anna Osborne's husband Milton was one of the 29 men killed in the mine explosion, 15 years ago. She said she did not initially want to work with DOC on the memorial as her focus was on getting the men's bodies removed from the mine, first. In some ways, she said she'd achieved that in the fight for accountability and the work done to have the police investigation re-opened. As a result, she had been a latecomer in joining other families working with DOC on the memorial plans. On the afternoon of 19 November 2010, an explosion ripped through the remote Pike River mine on the West Coast of the South Island, killing 29 men. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon She said there were different views about what happened at the mine, and some of her thoughts about the disaster were added into the planning for the memorial. "It's actually quite cool, it's going to look really nice, but it's just not what i want. I don't want to go up there and sit and look at the portal entrance, knowing that my husband's behind the seal and I can't bring him home." Osborne said the memorial would help to educate the public about the tragedy and bring closure for some. "I still feel like I'd give that all up just to bring our men home. It's not really closure, what they've done. To me, it's still bittersweet because my husband and the men are down there and we can't bring them home and justice hasn't even been served yet." Melanie Lynskey as Anna Osborne. Photo: Supplied / Matt Grace In September 2022, police announced they were reopening the borehole drilling operation as part of an investigation into the mine explosion and ten boreholes were drilled, imaged, and resealed. Human remains were found in the mine in 2023. In November, police said they were working with the Crown Solicitor as they consider whether to lay charges over the disaster and it was hoped a decision would be reached in the first half of 2025. It comes as the feature film Pike River , based on the November 2010 explosion, will premiere at the Sydney Film Festival next month, ahead of its release in New Zealand later this year. Directed by Rob Sarkies, the film was shot in Māwhera, Greymouth, Wellington and Auckland and features New Zealand actors Melanie Lynskey as Anna Osborne and Robyn Malcolm as Sonya Rockhouse. Robyn Malcolm as Sonya Rockhouse. Photo: Supplied / Matt Grace Both women lost men in the disaster and have become prominent in the families' fight for justice. They will attend the film's premiere in Sydney together, next month. Rockhouse said the film had in some way, helped with their healing. "Anna and I have found it to be an incredibly humbling experience to be involved in the film with a crew of people who felt strongly about the injustices we suffered, and wanted to tell our story." "We feel extremely honoured to be invited to attend the world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
