New member
Carol Bellette
Former Christchurch City Council chief financial officer Carol Bellette – current finance director at AgResearch – will become an independent member of Waipā District Council’s Audit and Risk committee.
She is already deputy chair of Hamilton City Council’s Strategic Risk and Assurance committee, which is chaired by Bruce Robertson, who also chairs the Waipā statutory committee. She has held governance roles across a variety of industries from health and education to finance, infrastructure, Māori business and social services.
The role of the Audit and Risk committee, which meets four times a year, is to provide independent assurance and assistance to the council on its risk, control and compliance framework, as well as its external accountability.
Seniors meet
Lou Brown
Grey Power Te Awamutu has organised a meeting with two district councillors to discuss the needs of seniors in the Waipā district.
President Michael Cullen will host Lou Brown and Roger Gordon at the September 5 meeting at the Te Awamutu Sports Club.
Liquor feedback
Consultation on the Local Alcohol Policy, Alcohol Control Bylaw and Alcohol Fees Bylaw has opened. The policy sets out where, when and how alcohol can be sold, supplied, or consumed concerning these sites. Waipā council is also introducing a bylaw to set the alcohol licence fees for applications and renewals. Feedback closes September 12.
Piarere planning
Motorists will start using the new Piarere roundabout – the intersection of highways one and 29 – in less than four weeks. But getting there will involve closing SH1 south from Piarere for a day on September 24, when vehicles will detour along highways 29 and 27 – adding about 12 minutes to their journey. The detour will not apply to emergency vehicles or residents and school buses.
See: Temporary road layout map
See: SH1-SH29 intersection detours
Cambridge link
Some of the 70 entities in the Du Val Group – put into interim receivership and statutory management earlier this month – had their registered company address at Herbert Morton accountants in Cambridge and Tamahere lawyer Owen Francis Tyrrell Culliney as a director. More than $250 million is owed to creditors of Du Val Group founders Kenyon and Charlotte Clarke.
Board agree
Cambridge Community Board has supported Waipā District Council’s proposal to cut the number of elected representatives by three, from 10 to seven.
New blood
Destination Cambridge general manager Ruth Crampton at Tuesday’s annual meeting. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Destination Cambridge have new board members following the resignation of Caron Steffert several weeks ago and the retirement of Jatin Bhai and Dick Breukink at Tuesday’s annual meeting. They are Marie Rechner (Mystery Creek), Richard Levings (Alphas St Cafe and Bar) and Bill Heslop (Accommodation consultant). Angelique van der Merwe, Belinda Gelston and chair Lucy Young will continue on the board.
In the finals
Dallas Prince Wholly Cow
Dallas Prince, from the Cambridge based Wholly Cow butchery, was a young butcher of the year finalist at the industry’s annual awards last week. Brad Gillespie from Te Awamutu’s Pak’n Save took part in the butcher teams challenge event as part of the Cut Above Butchers who won the best lamb product competition.
Bollards
The bollard at the front is damaged following the crash.
A Cambridge woman is questioning whether newly installed bollards adjacent to the cycleway in Bryce Street and at the entrance to the Trinity St Paul’s Union Parish are high enough after she crashed into one of them last week. The wooden bollards are under 50cm high and she clipped one on her way out – while looking for cyclists – sustaining significant damage to her car. The council says there was just a grass berm and some trees there before and the height was sufficient.
Strings on tour
NZSQ Soundscapes. Photo: Latitude Creative
The New Zealand String Quartet will bring its Soundscapes tour to Cambridge Town Hall next month as part of a move to take its music beyond the usual concert hall setting.
Elm help
Arborist planner James Richardson with Elm trees in Te Awamutu.
Elm trees in in Waipā will be injected with a vaccine designed to improve their resistance to Dutch Elm Disease, which was found in three trees in February. The vaccine, to be imported from Holland by Waipā District Council, will come at a cost of $25,000. DutchTrig has been found to be effective when used annually.
Tīrau wins
Tirau Community Board secured the Enhancing Communities Award at the Local Government New Zealand Community Boards awards last week for transforming a largely unused reserve into a beautiful community asset, complete with suspension bridge, pump track, BBQ area, restrooms, and on- and off-lead dog areas.
Water plan unveiled
Waipā, Taupō and Ōtorohanga district councils have acknowledged a report released by the Waikato Mayoral Forum which says the region would be better off if local councils worked together to deliver water services.
Waipā councillors this week directed staff to investigate two options – one which would see new chief executive Steph O’Sullivan negotiate a non-binding agreement for Waipā to join a regional waters organisation and a second, with an assessment due late next month, to determine if council determine can go it alone. The independent report from the forum said a regional waters entity could save $338 million across the region with most savings driven by improved capital works and planning.
In place
One of the turnaround bays now in place.
A programme of safety improvements involving flexible median barriers and turnaround bays, is now complete on State Highway 1 between Cambridge and Piarere.
The project began in 2020, with the aim of reducing deaths and serious injuries on this notoriously dangerous stretch of road.
Stage 1 was completed in December 2020, with 2.5km of flexible median safety barrier installed from south of Fergusson Gully Road.
Stage 2 followed, with the installation of 5.2km of flexible median barrier from an unnamed reserve to 1km north of Maungatautari Road towards Piarere. The remaining 2.5km of flexible median barrier from Keeley’s Reserve through to just past Kentucky Road was completed in June this year.
This month marks the conclusion of Stage 3, which includes 7.9km of flexible median barrier in sections from the end of the Waikato Expressway through to Fergusson Gully Road. This stage also included the construction of five turnaround bays.
New Piarere Roundabout
