Louise Askin - Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee
Kia ora koutou, I’m Louise from Makara, and a co-chair of the Whaitua Te Whanganui-a-Tara Committee. We are a community committee tasked with making recommendations to Greater Wellington Regional Council and our city councils on the future of water quality and its use in Wellington, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt (our Whaitua). Our waterways are precious and our water networks (freshwater, wastewater and stormwater) are vital for our community’s wellbeing. Recently, we have been learning about the state of water in our area and gathering community input on how water is valued and what should be done to look after it.
I live with my family beside the Makara Stream and we follow its path each day, winding from the beach up toward the headwaters above Makara Village or Ohariu. Our rural communities value their waterways and we want their input on how to best achieve reductions of sediment and pathogens in our rural areas. In town, there is a huge job ahead in upgrading the piped water networks and lessening our three cities’ impact on water quality - while also planning for population growth. Our region must meet national water quality requirements within a few years so we want to find solutions that reflect our communities’ views and are informed by good evidence and information.
Get in touch with us to give us your thoughts. You can reach us at whaitua@gw.govt.nz. To see what we have been doing visit our Facebook page. To share what you value about our water and your solutions, have your say here.
Poll: Does the building consent process need to change?
We definitely need homes that are fit to live in but there are often frustrations when it comes to getting consent to modify your own home.
Do you think changes need made to the current process for building consent? Share your thoughts below.
Type 'Not For Print' if you wish your comments to be excluded from the Conversations column of your local paper.
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91.5% Yes
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8.1% No
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0.3% Other - I'll share below!
Lest we forget...
On this ANZAC Day, let's take a moment to remember and honor the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve our country.
Tell us who are you honouring today. Whether it's a story from the battlefield or a memory of a family member who fought in the war, we'd love you to share your stories below.
Upper Hutt Rates Increases.
Please excuse if I am posting this where is shouldn't be. Admins, do remove this if its not appropriate.
I have not done anything like this before so please excuse if my wording isn't quite right.
As most of us are aware the Upper Hutt City Council have proposed to raise their Rates by near on 20% each year over the next 3 years.
If your UHCC Rates are around $2500 per year, after the 3 years of increases they will be approximately $4300 which equals an extra $35ish per week. This will not only hit homeowners, rentals, hirage of venues etc but will be impacting the community as the costs will be passed on with such large increases over a short period of time.
As I am outraged about this, I have created a petition on change.org to hopefully be able to show the council how many are not for these massive increases in a short period of time.
If you would like to support this petition please go to the link and add your voice.
www.change.org...
Thanks in advance.
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