Raglan Community Board Meeting Wednesday, 3 December 2025

This summary of the agenda for the December 3rd Raglan Community Board meeting has been prepared by John Lawson, Secretary of Whāingaroa Environmental Defence Inc., 51 Cliff St, Raglan 07 825 7866 email johnragla@gmail.com

The next Raglan Community Board meeting i is on Wed December 3 at 1.30pm in the Supper Room, Raglan Town Hall. You can raise issues directly with Board members email/phone.

John also advises that there is a hearing about freedom camping on James St from 9am at the Town Hall on Wednesday for the 9 submitters who asked to be heard. 74 (45%) said yes to the question “Do you support prohibiting freedom camping from James St”, but 65 (39%) said no, though there were clearly several who misunderstood the question. 70% of submitters live in WDC, 65.1% in Raglan.

And Raglan Naturally is consulting about Putoetoe Project, near Wi Neera St. Fill in the consultation form.

The next Community Board meeting is Wed 3rd December at 1.30pm.

Wednesday’s RCB agenda has only Board Members Report as a verbal item. The agenda includes –

1. Wainui Reserve 30 year plan “The Wainui Working group will be taking the current use plan prepared by CKL to partner agencies, and iwi and key reserve users throughout the next few months. The key reserve users’ workshop will likely be held in Feb.”
2. Schedule of meetings – 2026 – all are proposed for 6pm in the Town Hall (but staff recommend 1.30pm !!) on Weds 4 Feb, 18 Mar, 29 Apr, 10 Jun, 2 Sep, 14 Oct and 25 Nov. Also “The board may wish to meet between each board meeting with a workshop to discuss its work programme and connect with its community.”
3. Roading contract with Fulton Hogan – started on 1 July. “major weather events in July and October . . . Over the next 6-12 months, there will be a substantial increase in activities like dropout slip repairs, drainage renewals, heavy grading, metalling, vegetation trimming, and completion of a full network repaint of the pavement marking on sealed roads. . . poor drainage has been a key contributor to pavement failures . . . designs for engineered repairs at complex sites, particularly along Whaanga Rd ” It is not explained why Whāingaroa ward only has reseals planned in the next year for 1,512m of Cogswell Rd and 468m of Glentui La, whereas other wards have 13 to 46 such schemes planned.
4. Road safety options at Raglan Area School being considered, but no mention of walking school buses.
5. Connexa 2Degrees tower – “they are exploring other site options”.
6. Stormwater Wallis St gross pollutant trap isn’t trapping pollutants and doesn’t work well at high tide, so consultants will redesign and build it “this year”.
7. Sewage 11 Nov test at Manu Bay was within normal ranges.
8. Water new reservoir near the spring was to be on a pā site, so Heritage NZ is being consulted on an amended site.
9. Civil defence Community Response Group now has 46 people, based at Stewart St hall.
10. CCTV cabling installed for a camera beside Papahua public toilet to network with Raglan police station. Surf club camera and other cameras can also join the network.
11. Greenslade Rd Reserve playground work to be done Jan-Apr.
12. Councillor’s Report weekly ‘Councillor Korero’ sessions at the library starting in Feb. Lisa is now Chair of Community Voice and Choice committee, member of Chief Executive Performance Review, Roading, Assets & Infrastructure, Strategy Growth & Finance, Policy and Regulatory & Emergency committees, IAWAI Flowing Waters shareholders forum, Hamilton/Waikato Tourism, Waikato Tainui joint management agreement committee, WDC Resilience Project joint working party, Heritage Forum, WDC Crime Prevention Technology Trust, RCB, Raglan Holiday Papahua Governance Board.
13. Waitetuna pump track to be built by school on part of adjoining reserve.
14. Town to Surf footpath sign on the corner of Marine Pde and Wainui Rd.
15. Discretionary fund has $15,177.04, Lions want $1,300 for New Years Eve Parade.

These items are on other council agendas, but not on RCB’s agenda –

Waikato Regional Council  20/11

Disestablishing the Climate Action Committee and establishing a Regional Growth and Resilience Committee to provide strategic oversight of economic development and regional resilience.•Establishing a WRC Transport Committee –an internal committee, separate from the statutory Regional Transport Committee.

WDC 10/11/2025

Each meeting will start with Public Forum, costs and challenges of Council and Committee meetings at venues outside Ngāruawāhia being looked at, LGNZ membership, community led event management, volunteers to undertake minor works, review capital projects, Advisory Groups on Transport, Solid Waste, Community Facilities, Open Spaces, and Storm Water, Roading Subcommittee and Community Voice & Choice Committee replace Sustainability and Wellbeing; climate response is integrated into the core decision-making bodies — in particular Strategy Growth & Finance Committee and Infrastructure & Assets Committee, delegation of • Road naming, • Community leases, • Enhanced discretionary funding. Further opportunities for local delegation will be considered. decision-making powers will be delegated to committees. 7 Recreation Reserve Committees, but none for Whāingaroa. Total remuneration $963,939.

Waters Governance Board 22/10

• Water leakage 2024 30%, 2025 32%, WDC average 26%, 25%
• High E. coli reading identified in 2 sites, network tracing underway – cross connections 90 Rangithahi St identified 23/05/2025 Fixed 27/05/2025, 3/2 Mahana Pl, Nikau Pk identified 26/05/2025 Extension till 7 Oct
• $3m is being spent in 2026 on Government Rd, Marine Pde and Wainui Rd / Stewart St Outfall
  • Government Rd design works are underway to minimise flooding risk.
  • Wainui/Stewart St Outfall Upgrade in the design stage with construction scheduled for early Dec. The site investigation has been completed.
  • A site visit of Orams Reserve was undertaken in Jan 2025. The option to daylight an existing pipe was recorded and the project prioritised due to its alignment with a proposed upgrade to the nearby wastewater pump station. A full design of the daylighting has commenced, with construction anticipated to be completed in 2025/26. To address the damaged pipe at Marine Pde a network upgrade has been proposed. The project is currently in the design and consultation phase. Tenders will be sought in Dec.
• roading team yet to complete maintenance of roadside swales and raingardens
• The next stormwater Raglan Liaison meeting is planned for 25/26
• 2024–2025 reporting period, several wastewater overflows were logged in the CRM system – 24 in Raglan
• 58 tonnes of silt removed from 975m of stormwater pipe
• Stormwater maintenance – off Robertson Rd pest tree removal, Omahina St, Rangitahi, Te Ahiawa Rd
• SPEL filters have been installed across Rangitahi and 2 StormFilter 360 degree devices in Raglan

Bus consultation 19/9 (consultation ended 13/7)

Regional Council (WRC) is working on new bus contracts for 2027-2036. Despite Raglan’s bus service having the highest number of passengers per bus and the least subsidy per passenger of all the routes which link Hamilton with neighbouring towns, WRC’s long term plan for the 2027-36 bus contract is that ‘in the long term’ (probably about 2031), the routes to Huntly, Te Awamutu, Cambridge and Morrinsville will have at least hourly buses, but Raglan’s will be half that. That plan for the bus contract was agreed to  by WRC on 28 August. WRC’s agenda said, “Public consultation on the initial networks ran from the 25th of June to the 13th of July. Feedback from this consultation was taken into consideration in developing the final proposed networks which are being presented here.” However, it took almost 2 months to produce their report, too late to be considered by the meeting which agreed to the new contracts. When it did come, the report revealed several anomalies –

• 56.3% (99) said they’d use the bus less if the morning and afternoon services no longer ran through to Hamilton East. This response got the only change made in the contract proposals, but only in the short term. In the long term WRC still want to cut that link, despite a majority opposing it.
• Raglan is planned to have 12,500 people in 2070 but have half the buses of Morrinsville (10,246 by 2065), even though Morrinsville currently has fewer passengers, despite currently being about double the size of Raglan. WRC say “Raglan, while projected to grow and attract high visitor numbers, is outside the Metro Spatial Plan area, and therefore has different service level targets.“
• Raglan also has the lowest subsidy per passenger ($5.20) of all the rural routes in this contract, compared to $7.22 for Huntly and $12.85 for Morrinsville.
• The Raglan “weekend service enhancement remains in the long term”, despite 60.4% (102) in support, yet WRC approved extension of Te Aroha buses to the north end of town, with only 23.1% (31) support.
• WRC has agreed to “Increase service between Morrinsville and Hamilton to hourly all day and half-hourly during the peak”. Unlike Raglan no question was asked about this, but 70.2% (85 respondents) voted for a “Greater increase in Morrinsville to Hamilton weekday services BUT less increase in weekend services.” and 29.8% (36) for the converse. 29.8% is higher than 23.1%, but seems to have been dismissed and it also seems inconsistent to ask if Raglan passengers will use buses more, but not Morrinsville passengers, despite the evidence of the existing use and the rapid growth planned for Raglan.
• Similarly 32.6% (43) support was enough for WRC to agree to “Extend all Morrinsville terminating and starting services to provide a town route”.
• By contrast, 55.5% (86) of Raglan passengers would use an hourly circulator bus more, but the report said, “As there is not a strong preference to increase this service to hourly, it is recommended that we retain a 2 hourly frequency for the service, even in the long term.” Why do 43 passengers justify more buses, but 86 don’t?
• The report says, “Visitors frequently ask about transport options at info centres but are disappointed by the lack of services.” No attempt has been made to assess this level of demand and additional revenue, which is particularly relevant for Raglan and Thames. WDC estimated 36,000 visitors a week to Raglan over the 2016/17 peak.

Sustainability 15/9

Council’s embedding of climate action across the business is under review.

Policy 22/9

1 Dec 2019-1 Sep 2025 120 complaints about freedom camping in Raglan. 13 complaints related to James St:

Strategy 16/9

On 1 Jan 2025, Raglan water treatment plant recorded a residual chlorine reading of <0.2 mg due to equipment disruption. Compliance was maintained as the UV system remained operational as a secondary bacterial barrier.

Other issues missing from the RCB agenda – Spatial planning/Town plan,street lighting, recreation study, transport assessment, speed limits, RCB’s Facebook page (it’s being used again), alcohol ban, Manu Bay boat ramp, Papahua erosion, bus publicity, Cliff St pohutukawas, development next to 4 Square, footpath obstruction by cafes, old Harbour Care site, Manu Bay planting, Raglan Naturally, fluoride, organic waste, rubbish on SH23, Greenslade Rd SH23 junction, Connectivity Strategy. speeding on Main Rd, Harbour Strategy, Animal Control late responses, cycle counts, Bayview Rd safety, Canada geese, Cliff St, Park Dr/Long St crossing, town square, Town Hall Committee, WRAP, Calvert Rd parking, volunteer worker safety.

Should WED be taking up these or other issues?