Latest news with #Waikato
RNZ News
an hour ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Waikato share milker convicted, fined $40,000 for allowing farm effluent into Puniu river
Council officer sampling from an effluent storage pond. Photo: Supplied A Waikato share milker has been convicted, fined $40,000 and sentenced to 140 hours community work after allowing farm effluent to enter a nearby branch of the Puniu River, near Te Awamutu. Daniel Lund manages a family farm at Pokuru near Te Awamutu. In July and August 2022, council compliance officers conducted three inspections of the farm effluent system. During two inspections they found effluent storage ponds overflowing into a tributary of the Puniu River. On another occasion they found effluent ponding and runoff from an irrigator. A previous abatement notice that had been served on Lund was also being breached. Lund appeared last week before Judge Melinda Dickey in the Hamilton District Court facing five charges under the Resource Management Act because of a prosecution taken by Waikato Regional Council. In summing up her decision, Judge Dickey said she found Lund to be highly careless. "There appears to have been insufficient attention paid to the infrastructure and management of effluent disposal." Judge Dickey found the operation of the system left much to be desired. Waikato Regional compliance manager Patrick Lynch said the farm effluent ponds were inadequate and posed a real risk to the environment. "Mr Lund displayed a lack of understanding of managing effluent effectively and safely on the property," Lynch said. "Moving into the wetter and busier time of the year for farmers, this prosecution is a timely reminder to all farmers that there needs to be adequate effluent infrastructure and good effluent management systems on every farm." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- Business
- RNZ News
TradeMe to buy 50% of Stuff Digital
Stuff Group chief executive Sinead Boucher and TradeMe chief executive Anders Skoe. Photo: Supplied / TradeMe Stuff and TradeMe have announced a merger. In a statement, the companies say TradeMe will take a 50 percent stake in Stuff Digital - which publishes the website and ThreeNews. Stuff's mastheads - The Post, the Press and the Waikato Times - it's events business and Neighbourly are not included in the deal. The value of the deal has not been disclosed. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- General
- RNZ News
'Incalculable misery': Child's death in driveway part of a tragic trend, says coroner
Terase Wylie died in October 2023 after her neighbour reversed over her. File photo. Photo: 123RF The deaths of children in driveways is "all too common" in this country, says a coroner, after a 6-year-old in Waikato was run over by the reversing car of a neighbour. Coroner Ian Telford has found Terase Wylie died from blunt trauma to the head, and ruled it an accident. At about midday on 3 October 2023, Terase was playing on her electric scooter outside her Tuakau home. At the same time, a neighbour was reversing her car down the driveway. At the bottom, she hit and reversed over Terase, who went under the left rear wheel of the car. Terase's mother Narissa "ran to the vehicle, yelling loudly and banging on the passenger window" and "in what appears to have been a state of panic, [the neighbour] drove forward, unwittingly running over Terase a second time". An attending paramedic confirmed the death at the scene a short time later. The driver of the car pleaded guilty to a charge of careless or inconsiderate use of a vehicle causing death at the Pukekohe District Court in November last year. She was disqualified from driving for 10 months, ordered to undertake 175 hours of community work, and to pay $4000 in reparation to Terase's family. In his finding, Telford wrote: "Sadly, these deaths - and the incalculable misery they cause - are all too common in New Zealand, which has one of the highest child driveway death rates in the world. "While I do not wish to add to the suffering of those affected, is incumbent upon me to consider what lessons can be learned from this devastating, yet preventable, tragedy." He expanded on existing advice from Starship Children's Hospital, "based on their first-hand experience of working with children who have been injured or killed in driveway incidents". "By - quite literally - looking out for each other, we can prevent deaths on our driveways, along with the suffering they cause within our communities."
RNZ News
2 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Holiday road toll: 5 dead and at least 10 injured
The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Five people have been killed and at least 10 injured in separate crashes in the first two days of the long weekend. A motorcyclist was killed in a crash on Harihari Highway, State Highway 6 on Sunday. The crash, at Kakapotahi near the Waitaha River Bridge, was reported to police at a 5.15pm. No other vehicles were involved. A woman died in hospital on Sunday after her vehicle rolled on Tuakau Bridge-Port Waikato Road in Waikato on Friday, just a few hours after the holiday road toll period began. Three others were injured in the single vehicle crash. A man died several hours later in a crash in the Waipā district , also in Waikato, after his vehicle left the road and rolled into a paddock. Just after midnight on Saturday, a person died in a two vehicle crash south of Kawakawa in Northland. And on Saturday night, a man died after his car ended up on its roof on State Highway 16 in Auckland . Four people were taken to hospital, two in a serious condition and two in moderate condition. The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Last year, three people died on the roads during the King's Birthday holiday weekend.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Holiday road toll: 4 dead and at least 10 injured
The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi Four people have been killed and at least 10 injured in separate crashes in the first two days of the long weekend. A woman died in hospital on Sunday after her vehicle rolled on Tuakau Bridge-Port Waikato Road in Waikato on Friday, just a few hours after the holiday road toll period began. Three others were injured in the single vehicle crash. A man died several hours later in a crash in the Waipā district , also in Waikato, after his vehicle left the road and rolled into a paddock. Just after midnight Saturday a person died in a two vehicle crash south of Kawakawa in Northland. And on Saturday night a man died after his car ended up on its roof on State Highway 16 in Auckland . Four people were taken to hospital, two in a serious condition and two in moderate condition. The official road toll period will end at 6am on Tuesday. Last year, three people died on the roads during the King's Birthday holiday weekend.
