Tēnā koutou,
Last week we met with David Price who is proposing to subdivide a couple of acres into fifteen sections in Grovetown. David is a local and it was good to meet him to discuss the details of the proposed subdivision. Parts of his proposal are positive. There will be more families for the local school, a new footpath and two entrances to the subdivision off Vickerman St. He will also be installing a modern stormwater system along Vickerman St to the Fell St intersection and north ending outside the school.
As I see it the main difficulty will be storm-water. It is planned to empty the new system into the drain next to the school. To prevent flooding to the school and Uncle Howard Sadd’s property, the Fell St open drain from Grovetown School to Steam Wharf Rd will have to be upgraded by the Council, however, at this stage, there is no guarantee this will happen.
We are currently advertising three new roles – Pou Kaiwhakahaere, Pou Ahurea and Pou Taiao this week on our website, Seek and in the Marlborough Express over the next couple of weeks. You can find the job descriptions on our website https://www.rangitane.org.nz/panui/our-vacancies
As part of the project looking at Woodbourne, an investigation of the impact of PFAS is underway.
We put a submission into the Marlborough District Council yesterday on the cultural and environmental impacts of forestry caused sediment discharge to the marine environment in Port Underwood. This is a very topical issue, and besides damaging downstream property, has a very significant impact on fisheries, erosion and vegetation regrowth. You can see the effects of long-term siltation and erosion in the destruction of Northland harbours such as the Hokianga. Closer to home, siltation is regarded as a key factor in the decline of the fishery in the Marlborough Sounds. It’s important that we do not allow this to continue here.
We have still a few places left for Te Pumaomao Nationhood Building Course this Friday and Saturday. Please give the office a call if you would like to join us.
Finally, it was good to get back Sunday to a dry and (almost) sunny Blenheim after a wet and cold motorbike trip to Karamea on the West Coast over the weekend. Unfortunately, the weather followed me back and it was miserable everywhere yesterday except for the West Coast apparently. I hope you are all staying warm and dry.
Noho ora mai
Nick