At the end of November, Waikato District Council announced they were taking the necessary steps to conduct a controlled discharge of treated wastewater into the harbour during the incoming tide.
This incident was the second of its kind in 2022 and according to the council, while not a standard approach, “Releasing wastewater has been allowed in our consent with Waikato Regional Council due to the amount of rainfall over the past 48 hours, and stormwater infiltration (runoff) into our wastewater ponds.”
Cr Lisa Thomson understands the main cause of these incidents is a combination of the amount of rainwater flowing into the ponds and potential leaks in the stormwater infrastructure. By releasing the treated wastewater early, they are able to minimise the risk of untreated wastewater leaking out from the ponds into the environment by preventing any flooding from the excess rain.
(Listen to the full interview below:)
“It’s really incredibly unfortunate. The impact it has on our community, particularly the kōhunga and all of the other activities that take place there. That space is very important for hapū,” said Lisa.
The wastewater is released by the harbour-mouth side of the toilets at Wainamu Beach. Usually the treated wastewater is released twice a day on the outgoing tide.
When council staff were asked by Raglan Community Radio if previous ‘smoke testing’ programmes had been successful at getting residential stormwater out of the sewer system, they were unable to produce any data and simply said it couldn't be ruled out. Council staff also mentioned that another round of smoke testing is planned for 2023.
Raglan's Wastewater treatment plant's discharge consent expired in February 2020. It is currently operating legally under the expired consent conditions. A short-term consent has been applied for to allow time for the council to investigate options for a longer-term environmentally-friendly solution that will meet the needs of the growing Raglan community. You can find out more on the council website.
Internal Raglan Bus Service
Local elections and a changeover in staff at the Waikato Regional Council means we won’t see a bus service launched in time for summer but Lisa hopes to see something up and running by March next year.
Feedback from the community has shown an appetite for a number of services including a regular shuttle service connecting the CBD to the beach and Manu Bay, a direct bus service to the Base, Te Rapa as well as suggestions for a bus for students attending Raglan Area School.
Congestion at the school around drop-off and pick-ups times has been an ongoing issue so a bus service could alleviate the number of cars accessing the road during peak times.
“I think I mentioned that the police were up there and they thought it was one of the worst congested schools in the district. One of the problems that police listed was entitled argumentative parents,” said Lisa.
Raglan Community Board Meeting
The hot topic of conversation during the public forum was whether the one-lane car bridge would become a two-lane bridge in the near future.
Lisa says that according to council staff the upgrade will be triggered based on traffic numbers and that the works around the one-way bridge had been deferred from 2026 to 2031 in the Long Term Plan.
“I’m quietly confident that it will happen before 2031 because of the growth in the community and the use of that bridge.”
She expects the funding required for the upgrade will be significant.
Discretionary funding applications were also approved for the community gym to upgrade some of their equipment and run a youth programme. The New Year’s Eve parade and fireworks display also had their funding applications approved.
A number of organisations and projects in Raglan were also recipients of the Governments’ Better-Off funding scheme. These were Wahingaroa Hoe Waka Ama, Raglan Bowling Club, Old School Arts Centre elevator, the Raglan Wharf western walkway and funding to install the Automatic Number Plate Detection Camera and CCTV camera network.
Soundsplash 2023
Council staff attended the Raglan Community Board Meeting with an update on Soundsplash festival which returns to Raglan in January next year.
Items discussed included alcohol licensing, building consents, use of the airfield as well as extra resourcing for the Surf Life Saving Club over the busy weekend.
“Of course there were questions around whether they would be using the airfield and I think it’s the best place for the overflow car parking and ticketing to be and part of the consenting process is that the ticketing process is sped up,” said Lisa citing some of the long wait times that held up the festival in 2021.
“It’s a key spot to alleviate the traffic congestion and impact on our community. The past few years using the airfield has really cut down the waiting time on our roads,” said Lisa.
Normal beachgoers will also continue to have access to the Ngarunui Beach car park for the duration of the festival and organisers have confirmed they will provide extra resourcing for the Surf Life Saving Club to cover additional staff for the weekend.
Busy Summer Ahead
Lisa expects to see a busy summer ahead with the borders now open to international visitors. Volunteers at the iHub have been seeing increasing numbers of overseas tourists visiting Raglan as well. With increased visitors, we may start to see more freedom campers in the community and she says that the pre-engagement for the Freedom Camping Bylaw 2023 is now open at https://shape.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/early-engagement-freedom-camping2.
While we are unable to ban freedom camping completely, you can provide feedback around the locations that you would like to see it banned. With the Government also reviewing their freedom camping policy we can expect to see some changes in 2023.
Community Safety Day
Raglan Naturally in collaboration with Raglan Community Board and Poihakena Marae are hosting a Community Safety Day at the Police Station tomorrow from 10am.
The day will bring together a number of organisations including Police, St John, Animal Control, Neighbourhood Support, Community Patrol as well as other organisations involved in creating safe spaces for our community.
The safety day is in response to a meeting held in July to address issues around security and crime in the community following a spate of ram raids and vehicle burglaries. Lisa encourages members of the community to come along to learn about what’s been planned for the summer as well as ways that you can get involved.
There will be Police cars and dogs as well as a sausage sizzle - more information can be found here.
Council News
Heading the new Sustainability and Wellbeing Committee as Chair, Lisa says she is looking forward to the first meeting planned for February next year.
A new full council committee formed to give “these issues the mana they deserve,” according to Mayor Jacqui Church, Chairperson Lisa is passionate about the issues and is planning to, “Put in 150% to make it successful and to have outcomes that demonstrate the benefit of what we are doing directly to our communities,” said Lisa.
“It’s exciting because over the next 3-6 months we’ll see some tweaking around what that committee will look like. We have a long list of outcomes so we have to think about what sustainability looks like across our organisation, and what does wellbeing look like, and how do we benchmark those when it comes to economic development, infrastructure… all of those things.”
Lisa says that she is particularly looking forward to working with fellow Raglan local Rachel Goddard - who is currently employed as the council’s Climate Action Advisor.
Te Maruata Whanui Hui
Te Maruata is the Māori Committee and includes the wider whānui of Māori elected and iwi-appointed members in local government, and offers the opportunity to connect through wānanga and hui throughout the triennium.
Lisa recently returned from the annual hui and with over 70 delegates coming together from across the country and she said it was a fantastic opportunity to get together and coordinate key issues for Māori in the next triennium.
The Future for Local Government
There is currently an independent review taking place into the future for local government and this is an opportunity to find new approaches to local governance.
The reforms address the new challenges we expect to face over the next 30 years and recognise that current local governance structures and systems were designed many years ago, and are now facing considerable pressure.
Some of the reforms proposed more decision making at community board level along with ideas like lowering the voting age to 16 which could help to engage a younger demographic.
“I’m all for lowering the voting age personally. The year 7-10’s are so engaged if you look at what Joe Rao was doing around social sciences - they’re passionate about local issues and they’re really engaged at that time.”
Lisa says that while there would need to be some civics education to support lowering the voting age, it would be a perfect opportunity to feed the hearts and minds of young people about how to make a difference at local and central government.
She was particularly impressed by some of the young people elected in this year’s local elections, including 22-year-old Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, deputy mayor to Nick Smith on the Nelson City Council; and 31-year-old Moko Tepania, who made history as the first Māori mayor of the Far North and the youngest mayor to be elected in Northland.
Lisa encourages everyone to take a look at the review at the Future for Local Government website and to make a submission.
Year in Review
Signing off for the year, Lisa says that looking right back to 2020, things have been a ‘bit of a blur’ with Covid-19 dominating much of the conversations. With the burden of Covid-19 restrictions lifted, she has a sense that people are getting used to new stressors in life like the cost of living crisis, interest rate rises and ongoing housing issues.
The highlight for Lisa over the last two years has been seeing the “fabulous examples of collaboration and unity” in our community and our ability to work together across organisations. From this collaboration, a group of volunteers were able to coordinate a community response for Covid-19 that met the needs of the Whāingaroa community.
“If you look at Mike Edmonds and the Hauora Hub at the Kokiri, the fantastic work they’re doing, collaborating with Raglan Naturally, working alongside Raglan Medical to provide services every fortnight to whānau out at Waingaro - we’ve been able to collaborate across different organisations rather than working in silos.
“The power of community is incredible,” she said.
With community in mind, Lisa says “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,” and hopes that everyone enjoys their time with whānau this holiday season.
Lisa also mentions that many local businesses are currently facing staff shortages and that some patience and a smile will go a long way to alleviate some pressure off our local hospitality workers this summer.