Latest news with #Whakatāne
RNZ News
7 hours ago
- General
- RNZ News
Much loved swimming spot dumped on again
A two-door coupe style vehicle was found in the Tauranga River at Wardlaw Glade. Photo: LDR / supplied A rusting car body found in the Tauranga River at Waimana's Wardlaw Glade, about 20km south of Whakatāne, is just one of many the Bay of Plenty Regional Council is likely to have to pull out of rivers this year. Regional council compliance team leader Trudy Richards said last year, the council received 28 reports through its Pollution Hotline regarding vehicles abandoned in waterways across the region, from Katikati to Waioeka and surrounding areas. The two-door coupe-style car was reported to the hotline on Tuesday afternoon along with an assortment of whiteware and other rubbish dumped in the carpark beside the popular swimming spot. Richards said the council would arrange for a contractor to remove the car body from the river once weather conditions were suitable. "If feasible, we will also retrieve the whiteware." Pollution outside of the river bed typically falls under the responsibility of the territorial authority, which in this case is Whakatāne District Council. However, as Wardlaw Glade is alongside State Highway 2, this is unclear. A variety of whiteware has also been dumped at the Wardlaw Glade carpark. Photo: LDR / supplied The New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is responsible for rubbish collection on and alongside state highways. "However, where possible, we collaborate with local councils and Waka Kotahi to minimise costs." The cost of removal for the car varies depending on site accessibility, the need for traffic management, and potential fuel or oil discharge but, on average, each removal costs ratepayers about $2000. Richards said the regional council had not been able to assess the environmental impact of the car body on the river because of a lack of information on how long the vehicle has been in the waterway and whether it was fully intact or contained fuel or other fluids when it entered the water. "It is always disheartening to witness such disregard for our environment through the careless dumping of waste," she said. Transport agency system manager Andy Oakley said maintenance contractors were dealing with an "increasingly awful job", cleaning up after illegal rubbish dumping at rest areas along SH2. "It's been a growing problem over the last couple of years at this rest stop and others, and can vary from domestic household rubbish, to large household items, such as beds, chairs, headboards and washing machines, to broken toys and push chairs." "Stopping at rest areas to pick up litter was costly in terms of both money and, more importantly, time, when they could be prioritising other work that is vital to motorists such as fixing potholes. "Littering in public places is illegal. We would love the support of the community to please report any sightings of fly tipping to NZ Police or call NZTA on 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49). LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Rain bombs cast cloud over Matatā housing growth
A rain bomb in the hills above Matatā in March this year saw sediment and debris-laden water overtop Moore's bridge closing State Highway 2 and entering private properties. Photo: LDR / supplied Whakatāne Mayor Victor Luca says building more homes within Matatā now would be a mistake due to the potential damage from "rain bombs" and worsening weather. Matatā is one of the areas named in the draft Eastern Bay Spatial Plan as a key growth area for housing, with infill housing of up to 700 homes and the potential for development of up to 800 homes eastward of Pollen Street over the next 30 years. At an infrastructure and planning committee meeting on Thursday, council learned that since August, Whakatāne District Council has spent more than $300,000 clearing sediment and debris from Matatā catchpits after it washed down from stream catchments due to localised "rain bombs". Most of the cost was incurred between between February and May due to several heavy rain events in the hills above the town during that period. Rain bombs are usually associated with burst of heavy rain that has potential to do damage. Luca said it would be a mistake to densify Matatā with what was going on there at the moment. "Climate change is the elephant in the room and we seem to have consistently underestimated the effects. "There's a micro-climate [in the Matatā catchment]. It's not totally predictable, but it looks like things are going to keep getting worse. "These rain bombs that come - this is the second in 20 years but they don't have to be linear, there could be another one in a year or two. "This has to be fixed and the people living there have to be given some comfort." A rain bomb in the hills above Matatā in March this year saw sediment and debris-laden water overtop Moore's bridge closing State Highway 2 and entering private properties. Photo: LDR / supplied After the 2005 debris flow, the council placed sediment and debris catchpits in Matatā both at the Awatarariki Stream on the western side of the town and Waitepuru Stream on the north-eastern side of the town. A $70,000 annual maintenance budget is supposed to cover the cost of keeping these catchpits clear so that the town and lagoon do not suffer debris flooding events. Despite this, earlier this year a heavy rainfall event localised in the hills above Matatā saw sediment and debris overwhelm Moore's Bridge, which crosses the Awatarariki Stream, blocking State Highway 2 and entering properties on Pioneer Place. While some of the cost overrun for removing debris was covered from an emergency stormwater fund, $112,000 of unbudgeted spending needed to be approved which would likely come from an internal loan. This amount also included the repair of a blown out stormwater pipe in Murupara. Three waters manager Jim Finlay suggested this sediment and debris coming down the rivers could be mediated with rock weirs slowing the flow of the water, at an estimated cost to the council of $140,000. "It's terrible that we're just sitting there waiting for this to happen and you have to clean up each time and if you don't you are possibly going to have flooding down the highway and through the town from both of those streams." He likened it to "someone having a party in your house every week and you've got to go and clean up the mess". Councillor Gavin Dennis recently presented to the Bay of Plenty Regional Land Transport Committee about the Moores Bridge incident which resulted in a debris flood. He asked that the bridge be improved and that New Zealand Transport Agency and New Zealand Rail increase their maintenance on their State Highway 2 and railway bridges. Finlay said New Zealand Rail had since cleared out their culverts on the Awatarariki Stream and had further work planned for clearing culverts on the Waitepuru Stream. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Three strikes and you lose your bin
A yellow-top recycling bin filled with items that are not accepted at the Tauranga Material Recovery Facility where the bins' contents are taken. Photos supplied Photo: LDR Whakatāne District Council plans to bring in strict penalties for those who continually put incorrect items in their recycling and greenwaste bins. Three strikes and perpetrators will have their large yellow or green lidded bins confiscated for three months. Solid waste manager Nigel Clarke recently presented the mayor and councillors with a plan for how to tackle the high amounts of unrecyclable waste making its way to the Material Recovery Facility in Tauranga every week and into the compost being made at the Keepa Road greenwaste facility through kerbside collections. The Tauranga facility reports incorrect items can sometimes make up as much as 65 percent of recycling they receive from Whakatāne district. The average so far this year has been 25 percent. The facility will not accept kerbside recycling from Murupara at all because of the high level of contamination. The Murupara recycling bins must first be pre-sorted in Whakatāne. Clarke said the contractor that recycles Whakatāne greenwaste into compost will no longer accept kerbside greenwaste. It had not been able to sell the finished product because of the large amount of uncompostable items place in bins by households. The council recently had to dispose of over 475 tonnes of compost from the Keepa Road site to landfill at a cost of $143,000. Clarke said people needed to think of recycling and greenwaste as a product that they were trying to sell. Contamination devalued it. Unrecyclable items dumped at the Tauranga Material Recovery Facility from Whakatāne kerbside bins. Photo: LDR "Imagine if you go to the supermarket and buy a sealed bag of potatoes. If you open up that bag and find it's 50 percent soil you're not going to buy that brand of potatoes again. It's the same with our kerbside recycling. If it's full of things that shouldn't be there, the industry doesn't want it." Most households did the right thing and educational programmes did work to a point, but there was evidence that some households just didn't want to recycle correctly. "Some don't want to be educated. Some will purposely hide contamination underneath other items." He plans to launch a greenwaste contamination education campaign in July which will introduce a system in which anyone placing incorrect items in their greenwaste bins will be issued a warning letter and flyer. If a third letter must be issued their bin will be confiscated for three months. The perpetrator would not be eligible for a deduction in rates due to this service being removed. A similar programme for recycling bins was planned for October. Clarke said the problem of kerbside recycling contamination was not restricted to Whakatāne but was a nationwide issue. He said several other councils around the country had taken similar steps to address the problem. Information about items that can be placed in greenwaste and recycling bins is available on the council's website. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
The headwinds facing regional airlines
Air Chathams' Duane Emeny says the most important step for the government would be to give airlines access to low or no-interest government concessionary loans. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly Passenger numbers on regional airlines have never been better, but the costs of running them have never been higher. "Passenger numbers are through the roof," says Sounds Air boss Andrew Crawford. But it has had to "kill off" Taupō and Westport routes and sell an aircraft, and the company is still losing money. "I wouldn't know one airline that isn't," he says, citing fuel, labour and maintenance as the three big costs of flying. Add in landing fees, Airways fees and the Civil Aviation Authority more than doubling the passenger service levy. "This is a critical issue for New Zealand," says Crawford. "Between us we're flying around 600 flights a week around regional New Zealand. We don't do that for fun, that's essential services, and I can tell you that a big part of it is healthcare." Photo: Sounds Air Unless something drastic happens Crawford says he can't guarantee the security of other Sounds Air routes. He's not the only one. Air Chathams has dropped Norfolk Island and its Auckland - Whakatāne service is up in the air. Chief operating officer Duane Emeny tells The Detail that flying is a high risk business and conditions are the toughest they've been in his airline's 41 year history. "You're one bad day from maybe having to pull an engine off an aircraft and send it away because you had a bird strike." He says his father Craig Emeny, founder and chief executive, has taken the airline through the global financial crisis in the early 2000s, intense competition and even a grounding by the CAA and survived. "He's had some real challenges in his life and this seems to be trumping a lot of them at the moment," he says. Both airline bosses say they have had meetings with government ministers about support for the sector but Crawford says after six years he's given up. "For six years we've been fighting to try and get support, try and get regional aviation in this country recognised and it just falls on deaf ears," Crawford says. His airline is "hanging off shareholders' mortgages" but no one is listening. Taupō mayor David Trewavas has a brand new $9 million airport terminal built with a Provincial Growth Fund grant but he can't find another airline willing to take over the Wellington - Taupō route after Sounds Air then Origin Air pulled out. Origin Air lasted no more than six weeks before deciding the service wasn't viable. Trewavas says his council could not have done any more to keep either airline. "They were looking for a direct investment in the company and I don't think it's the council's business to be a part owner of an aviation company," he says. But finding a replacement is not easy. Air New Zealand had looked at the route but doesn't have an aircraft available and Air Chathams is only a "possibility". "There's not too many second tier airlines in New Zealand," he says. Duane Emeny, chief operating officer of Air Chathams. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly Air Chathams' Duane Emeny says the most important step for the government would be to give airlines access to low or no-interest government concessionary loans. "To be really clear, it is a loan, so it is money that those airlines would absolutely be paying back," he says. But there's no definite response from the government. In an email to The Detail the Associate Transport Minister James Meager says the government is currently considering a range of options to support regional connectivity and improve competition in the sector but is yet to make any decisions, including on whether access to concessionary loans would be the right thing to do. "We are committed to supporting existing measures to improve consumer experience flying, such as improving airline on-time performance through regular reporting, technology investments to speed up security queues, and infrastructure investments in our regional airports. "The Commerce Commission is looking at competition in airports, and I am considering whether there is any benefit in further moves around airfare transparency and further scrutiny on how to reduce the wider costs facing the aviation sector." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
RNZ News
28-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Māori men discuss health, well-being at symposium
Dr Lance O'Sullivan. Photo: Supplied A symposium run by Māori tertiary institute Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi is giving Māori men the chance to discuss their health and well-being. Around 200 men gathered at Te Mānuka Tūtahi marae in Whakatāne on Tuesday to listen to several leading figures in Māori health speak about men's well being. Speakers included former All Black Dallas Seymour, clinical psychologist Dr Luke Rowe and CEO of Te Wānanga o Raukawa Professor Meihana Durie. Director of Research and Innovation at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi Te Kani Kingi said the idea began with a discussion among some of the Māori men working in the health sector. In spite of the statistics showing Māori men have the poorest health outcomes, they felt there weren't any programmes aimed at Māori men, he said. "So, we thought it was a bit concerning that, in spite of what the data reveals about the poor state of Māori men's health, that almost nowhere is it prioritised," he said. They set up Tāne Ora as a place to get Māori men together to share information about the issues they face and potential solutions to those issues, Kingi said. For the symposium the group deliberately targeted Māori in the local community. Kingi said this wasn't a hui for academics and scholars. "We're getting a little bit tired of hearing about how bad we are, through statistics, within the media. One of the speakers Riki Niania, the CEO of Te Rau Ora a Māori mental health entity, I think he captured the mood of the symposium, he said 'it's now time for hiki wairua' let's lift ourselves up." Kingi said his biggest takeaway was the potential of tāne Māori and that culture can be the catalyst for Māori men's health and well-being. "Most of [the speakers] got very personal about their own challenges in life and how they resolved those issues and moved forward, what strategies they used and that was really inspiring." Professor Te Kani Kingi. Photo: Supplied Dr Lance O'Sullivan was one of the speakers. He said there was plenty of amazing kōrero, much of it relating to the Whare Tapa Whā model, a Māori health framework developed by Sir Mason Durie in 1982. It represents health as a whare (meeting house) with four walls, taha wairua (spiritual health), taha hinengaro (mental health), taha tinana (physical health) and taha whānau (family health). "What are the things that we, as Māori men, need to embrace and celebrate more, all the things we're doing currently that we can keep doing [and] what are the things we're doing that aren't working," O'Sullivan said. "Look, we'll be clear and say that Māori men's health needs work. We as Māori mean, we need to do better and look this is not a criticism, it's a challenge for our men to say, for different reasons sometimes we're putting others before ourselves, sometimes we're not being selfish enough, sometimes we probably are being too selfish." O'Sullivan said the audience was full of Māori men from their early teens right up to kaumātua (elders) all listening intently. "Why aren't we having more wānanga where Māori men come together and talk about what are the issues that we face as Māori men, as fathers, as brothers, as sons, as mates and bros and as husbands and partners to our wider whānau. Because there are issues we need to talk about, we need to encourage Māori men to talk about issues of pertaining to well-being. "First of all, we need to have spaces with Māori men can have conversations... we do it for lots of other things, we talk about our diving prowess, we talk about our football prowess, we talk about Kapa Haka prowess, how can we say let's have a space for Māori men to talk about their health and well-being." O'Sullivan uses the mantra 'vulnerability is the new sexy' as a way to encourage men to be open about their struggles, whether that be mood, anxiety or past trauma. It's not something to be ashamed of or shy away from, because the power sharing it for the people in the room is huge, he said. "Look, it's a hard space. I won't deny that. It takes people to foreign places and uncomfortable spaces where they share things and me included where they go, 'gosh, am I oversharing? Am I putting myself too far out there and making myself too vulnerable?' But, you know, sometimes you do that and people say thank you." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
