Latest news with #KateWilson
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The man I thought was my boyfriend turned out to be a married undercover cop with two children... he went from my bed, to a debrief with his handler, to the bed of one of my activist friends - all on the SAME DAY
Through the course of their relationship, Kate Wilson frequently teased her boyfriend Mark about the amount of time he spent on his phone. 'He was the original phone addict before it was a thing; always texting,' she recalls.
Otago Daily Times
03-07-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
New $2m environmental project fund green-lit
Otago Regional Council's ecological funding programmes have helped support projects like Forest and Bird's predator control protection of native species in the Catlins' Fleming wetland, including ground-nested mātātā (fernbird) chicks. PHOTO: FRANCESCA CUNNINGHAME South Otago environmental projects can look forward to further opportunities for meaningful funding, thanks to the Otago Regional Council. Last week, councillors gave the green light for staff to progress a proposed $2million large-scale environmental fund. Councillor and co-chair of the environmental delivery committee, Kate Wilson, welcomed the decision, saying the community had shown that large-scale, catchment-wide approach was the most effective delivery model. The $2m per-year fund, which was launched recently, will initially be funded from council reserves. The new fund is separate from the council's annual ECO Fund, which topped $1m this year and has been utilised by several South Otago projects during past funding rounds. "It had been well supported through consultation and provided for intergenerational impact, collaboration and also aligns with organisational strategic direction to support environmental outcomes," Ms Wilson said. Co-chair Lloyd McCall, of Tapanui, said the ability for the council to be able to support and enable community-led environmental action at scale was an excellent opportunity. "There is already significant investment that the community are contributing to environmental outcomes and to be able to support more of this to happen on the ground is vital to enhance what we have for future generations," he said. Environmental implementation manager Libby Caldwell said the council would lead the funding system, while local leadership and action would be driven by communities to achieve sustained environmental outcomes.
Otago Daily Times
02-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
$2m fund revealed
A new fund aims to support environmental outcomes. The Otago Regional Council recently approved a new $2 million annual fund. Initially pooled from council reserves, it will be available for any community-led environmental project in Otago. The new fund is separate from the regional council's annual Eco Fund. Environmental implementation manager Libby Caldwell said the council was developing eligibility criteria and would take a leadership role in the funding system, but the aim was for communities to lead local action to achieve sustained environmental outcomes. "This fund is targeted at large-scale environmental projects which have intergenerational impacts, local leadership and action which is driven by communities and alignment to ORC strategy and strategic direction." A wide variety of projects could be included such as river, stream, wetland revitalisation or restoration, wilding conifer proposals, on-ground works, biodiversity enhancement, water quality improvement, animal or plant pest control, native planting and regeneration, education as well as administrative support. Work on private farmland or forestry blocks might be eligible if projects are aligned with environmental enhancement or restoration and meet the required criteria. "Each application would be assessed on its own merits, bearing in mind Eco Fund already caters for smaller projects to some extent. "The intent of this new funding is that it would be looking at projects at a larger scale, so likely to be projects which are of a higher value and include collaborative projects." Further criteria will be developed to help potential applicants understand whether their projects are likely to be supported A two-stage process for fund allocation is being proposed. First, interested organisations would submit a registration of interest so their eligibility can be assessed. This would be followed by a more detailed proposal submitted through a request-for-proposal process. Further detail on this process will also be presented to the regional council for approval in due course, she said. Councillor and environmental delivery committee co-chairwoman Kate Wilson welcomed the decision, saying the community had shown that a large-scale catchment-wide approach was the most effective delivery model. Co-chairman and councillor Lloyd McCall said the regional council's ability to support and enable community-led environmental action at scale was an excellent opportunity. "There is already significant investment that the community are contributing to environmental outcomes and to be able to support more of this to happen on the ground is vital to enhance what we have for future generations," he said.
Scoop
25-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
New $2m Large-Scale Environmental Fund Endorsed By ORC
ORC councillors yesterday gave the green light for staff to progress a proposed $2 million large scale environmental fund. Councillor and co-chair of the environmental delivery committee, Kate Wilson, welcomed the decision, saying the community had shown that large scale catchment wide approach was the most effective delivery model. 'It had been well supported through consultation and provided for intergenerational impact, collaboration and also aligns with organisational strategic direction to support environmental outcomes,' she says. The delivery committee's other co-chair and Councillor, Lloyd McCall, says the ability for ORC to be able to support and enable community led environmental action at scale is an excellent opportunity. 'There is already significant investment that the community are contributing to environmental outcomes and to be able to support more of this to happen on the ground is vital to enhance what we have for future generations,' Mr McCall says. At a full Council meeting in Dunedin yesterday, Councillors unanimously endorsed the proposal for staff to progress implementation of the prioritised funding model. The $2 million per-year fund will initially be funded from Council reserves and comes into effect from 1 July 2025. The new fund is separate from the ORC's annual ECO Fund. Manager Environmental Implementation, Libby Caldwell says on collaboration across the system, ORC will take a leadership role of the funding system, but local leadership and action will be driven by communities to achieve sustained environmental outcomes. In considering ORC alignment to organisational strategy and strategic direction, Mrs Caldwell says that covers 'knowing that the right investment decisions are being made in the right place at the right time to support ORC's strategic directions and the goals set by Council'. Through the annual plan process the decision was also made in the Council meeting yesterday to proceed with funding this programme of work.
Otago Daily Times
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Music proposed as way to calm bus hub conduct
Music could be used to soothe savage behaviour at Dunedin's city centre bus hub, a regional councillor has suggested. Cr Kate Wilson said she was not suggesting following the lead of former speaker Trevor Mallard, who blasted music in an attempt to deter protesters camped outside Parliament to protest government control during the Covid-19 pandemic. But she questioned the absence of music as one of the "actionable insights" contained in Collective Strategy principal consultant Angela Davis' 29-page report on developing and refining the approach to safety in the central city. "Sound can be very calming," Cr Wilson said. "We often build 'traffic calming' areas into design, but we don't do 'people calming'." She said she was "intrigued" the report had not canvassed the concept, which she understood was used in hospitals. Council regional planning and transport general manager Anita Dawe said it appeared not to be one of the strategies used elsewhere, which Ms Davis examined in the report. "I do know it's successful in supermarkets — it changes shopping behaviour," Ms Dawe said. The Otago Regional Council's public and active transport committee yesterday received the report, commissioned by the council for the central city advisory group — the multi-agency group created in the wake of the fatal stabbing last year of 16-year-old Enere McLaren-Taana. Cr Alexa Forbes, who chaired yesterday's committee meeting, said the report appeared focused on "preventing crime through inclusion and visibility". "It doesn't actually rule out sound, or music." Council chairwoman Gretchen Robertson said there were benefits to working on safety issues with other agencies in a collaborative way. It was a "privilege" for the regional council to run public transport, and the council wanted public transport to be "welcoming and [a] preferred mode of travel", she said. The council had taken a close look at what it could do in the short term to improve safety and had taken "well reported" steps to improve safety at the bus hub. But the report also contained statistical analysis showing the bus hub was not the only problematic area in Dunedin's city centre. The report revealed most documented "victimisation" in the city centre occurred very early on Sunday morning. " I don't think that's a youth issue," Cr Robertson said. "This is a whole-of-community issue. "I think it requires collaboration," Cr Robertson said. "It requires looking at the hub. "It requires looking broader than that as well to the central city." Council chief executive Richard Saunders suggested there was more of a leadership role for the Dunedin City Council in safety issues than the regional council. "The issues largely arise in public space, which are the responsibility of the territorial authorities," Mr Saunders said. "So they have a critical role to play in the management of that public space and any bylaws that may seek to change behaviours in that space. "The fact that the group is focused on inner-city safety, not bus hub safety, speaks to the role of DCC in terms of that overall management of that public space through the city. "They won't achieve anything on their own, but the leadership, I think, is quite a critical piece. "And I suspect the reference in here points more to leadership in the public space than it does within the transport network." The city council has been approached for comment.
