December 2016 Residents’ Association meeting minutes

Tuesday 13 December 2016

Present: Iain McLean, Kate Dreaver, Brian Sullivan, Pauline Morse, Jonathan Harker, Paul FitzGerald, Dale Williams (PCC), Bill Inge (PCC), Jenny Brash (GWRC).

Community: Peter Roach, Greg Hamilton, Sheryl Boxall, Kathy Ó Halloran, Martyn Cook.

Apologies: Nick Vincent, June Penhey, Beccy Davis.

Approval of previous minutes

See: November 2016 minutes.

Moved Brian, seconded Kate.

Matters arising from previous minutes

See: November 2016 minutes.

RA to arrange an online survey and gather responses for the NZTA crash reduction study. Iain to create the survey this weekend, and we’ll put it around over the Christmas break.

Kate to arrange a meeting for the Village Plan survey strategy; to be discussed as agenda item, below.

Community garden access: to be discussed as agenda item, below.

Iain to approach Pauline to include in the Muri Road safety work a Gray Street-Muri Road footpath extension, as suggested by Peter Roach at the November meeting.

Financial Report

Balance: $3010.62

No change.

Correspondence

Received the October 2016 Neighbourhood Support Group newsletter.

Erosion at Pukerua Bay Beach

Presented by Greg Hamilton, Sheryl Boxall, Martyn Cook, Kathy Ó Halloran.

Greg Hamilton: The bank along Ocean Parade has lost more than a metre (sometimes several metres) of bank in 2016; from storm damage. Size and speed of erosion damage has been alarming to residents. The picnic table area gets high usage from the public, and is now dangerously close to the eroded bank. Given that summer is coming, there is some urgency to make it safe for the public. Four objectives:

1. increase awareness,

2. bring community together on the issue, to liaise to council,

3. increase urgency, due to the alarming scale and speed of damage, and

4. share the issue with the Residents’ Association.

Sheryl Boxall: the impacts of extreme weather events, sea level rise, seasonal change, ocean circulation and tidal patterns due to the changing climate are of particular interest to residents. The erosion affects the health and safety of residents and the public, flora and fauna, and PCC infrastructure (sewerage, roading, parks assets).

Dale Williams (PCC): council has had to reallocate $600,000 in order to deal with over 300 critical flood- and/or earthquake-related works since the events in November. Council has received the commissioned erosion report, and hope to meet Ocean Parade residents before Christmas to discuss the reported options. PCC is currently spread thin due to the increased workload from the emergency storm and earthquake works.

Martyn Cook: normally there is a certain level of erosion resistance provided by deliberately planted vegetation and root system, but one large event has removed this, which has opened the beach to subsequent and continued more rapid erosion.

Jenny Brash (GWRC): will get Ian to contact PCC around the coastal erosion modelling data he has been working on in the region.

PCC may arrange for temporary hazard fencing and signage to be put in place before Christmas, while the longer term solutions are discussed.

PCC have also engaged Undersea Construction to repair the boat ramp, with work to begin before Christmas, and will depend on weather.

Action: Jonathan to summarise provided information on the Pukerua Bay website and publish to Facebook.

Community food forest garden agreements

Occupation licence for Muri reserve community garden: Paul FitzGerald proposed adding sewerage and power in along with the council water, in order to provide for future public toilets on (or near) the site. Bill reports that it wouldn’t save money in the long run. Installing public toilets is expensive, sewerage pipes can be arranged as needed.

Action: Jonathan to draw up a larger plan of the garden according to the proposed agreement.

Action: Iain to contact Olivia to discuss amended changes.

KiwiRail agreement to grant non-exclusive access: received, RA to sign. The requested public liability insurance cover of $5,000,000 is also required by the PCC occupation licence, and would be one policy, not two. Bill will try to get us a deal on policy pricing through council channels.

Motion: that Iain can sign the above two agreements on behalf of Pukerua Bay Residents’ Association, if no objections from committee members are received by him by 5pm this Friday 15 December. Moved Paul, seconded Pauline. None opposed, motion carried.

Cafe community hub update

The café community hub group are presenting their research findings to the parish tomorrow (14 December).

Porirua City Council update

Community Garden Access: KiwiRail has now sent through the agreement to grant access to the community garden for you to sign and the Council will pay the first year of the licence fee.

Muri Food Forest: Bill Inge and Robyn Steel have prepared a simplified summary of the Council’s draft lease agreement for you to use this land. There are items that need to still be clarified with Olivia Dovey the Council’s Parks Manager. This will be completed after Christmas.

Green and Gold Heritage Trail: KiwiRail is looking at our request to put a sign on the platform and should be back to us before Christmas.

Te Araroa way-finding signage: A project to survey walkers about what signage is needed and where it should go will be done after Christmas.

Ara Harakeke footpath from shops to Wairaka Road: This project is alive but on hold pending NZTA’s crash reduction study and safety improvement proposals as per the presentation to your committee tonight.

Muri Road safety work: The Downer’s team have presented design ideas to the Council’s Roading team as practical solutions to improve community safety for users of Muri Road. They will take on board the Council’s feedback and are coming up with costed options for community consultation. These should be with us before Christmas.

Dale Williams adds: Well done to the community that there was no loss of life or serious injury in the November events, and looking after residents. The Kaikōura earthquake caused slips and building damage, which combined with the ensuing very high storm rainfall and king tide, caused a lot of coastal erosion and flood damage. There are still folks still unable to return to their homes and still dealing with the damage. The council inherited a long-term plan with a 5% annual rates increase. Since the local body elections we have had to re-evaluate this, which is difficult with 85% of the budget controlled by asset and infrastructure management. To save money and control rates increases, council will have to query every community project’s budget on necessity and cost, especially since the earthquake and flooding.

Review of Village Plan update

Presented by Kate Dreaver. We will be updating the village plan in 2017 with a view to presenting it for approval at the next AGM. The revision process will have three phases: organise a few focus groups to illicit ideas from the community; use those results to design the survey; then we develop the plan from the survey results, to be reviewed by the committee and then presented at the AGM next year for approval. The next immediate job is to develop a template questionnaire for the focus group work at the beginning of next year.

Timeline

January 2017	Develop a template for the focus groups
February	Test the template with the committee
March	Conduct focus groups Share initial findings at the RA meeting Begin development of the survey form
April	Conduct focus groups, including the one for general invitation Share initial findings at the RA meeting Continue development of the survey form
May	Complete development of the survey form
June	Run the survey
July	Analyse and present the survey findings
August	Draft the revised plan
September	Review, edit and design the revised plan
October	Present the revised plan to the AGM

Heritage Trails update

Brian: Waiting for Ted to come back so we can use his tractor to move the jarrah timbers around to cut and drill the signs together. Are now in contact with Ngāti Toa, and there will be a marae committee meeting tomorrow night (14 December) to discuss it.

Other Business

Beach bash: income from koha, sausage sizzle and drinks. RA to act as the accounts, expenses (food & drink, PA and operator) should be around $500. Several acts arranged, and stuff needs to be printed and distributed this week. Bill: roading arrangements are okay. Not heard from parks yet.

Action: Iain to ask Olivia to follow this up, when discussing the occupation licence.

Meeting finished: 9.35 pm.

Next meeting: Tuesday 14 February 2017.