You might have noticed that the old shelter building on the southbound platform of the former Muri railway station has a new coat of paint and is looking pretty flash. This is thanks to the Greater Wellington Regional Council, which is handing ownership of the building over to the Residents Association. It’s the culmination of a long process that began when GWRC closed the station in 2011.
The plan is to make it part of He Ara Pukerua heritage project, and it will have the Pukerua Bay railway history on display in the shed. In the meantime, we have a temporary sign…
Temporary heritage sign on Muri Station shelter.It was installed by our friend Bill Inge, Village Projects Coordinator from Porirua City Council.
The NZTA contractors have been busy little beavers lately, fixing the debris fence and retaining wall above Brendon Beach. Now, they’re about to start on the retaining wall on the sea side of the layby near the Three Sisters Rocks.
A new crib wall is being built on the seaward side of the lane between the two laybys to replace the one which has been almost destroyed by storms and constant strong wave action.
From Wednesday 10 July for three weeks — weather permitting.
Work will be conducted during the day.
The laybys and lane will become a worksite and will be closed to traffic.
Minimal impact on traffic — all work will be off the road but there will be trucks coming and going.
The shared path beside the road will remain open to pedestrians and cyclists throughout the works.
We will compile them and send them to Porirua City Council. Many of you included very helpful comments in your response, which will also need to be analysed. Thank you for your input. We’ll let you know what the outcome is.
We’re very pleased to see that NZTA has put up a “No engine braking” sign for south-bound traffic. It’s been a long battle even just to get signs installed, and David Olsen deserves credit for persisting with it. We’d like to find ways of stopping engine braking disturbing residents entirely, but this is a good start.
The Pukerua Bay School Board of Trustees (BoT) and the Pukerua Bay Residents Association (PBRA) have met to discuss the future management of our local hall, in an attempt to find a way forward.
We met last Thursday night (22 November) to discuss options for how the hall committee might be involved in the future management of the hall and what role they might have.
The Board outlined its responsibilities as the property manager, and its obligation to develop a policy that reflects those responsibilities and is consistent with the Ministry of Education’s and legal requirements.
The hall committee described the strong feeling of attachment that many people in the community have to the hall, which they have developed over many years of children attending the school, and the hall being the centre of many community events over the past 45 years.
The two groups agreed that everyone in the community shares a guardianship role over the hall and that a relationship between the hall committee and Board should build on that.
We spent quite a bit of time clearing up differences in the interpretation of events in the past 15 months and acknowledged that we could have communicated better over that time.
The administration of the booking system remains a sticking point for the hall committee. They would like to explore other options that reflect their expectations and that would be acceptable to the Board while addressing the Board’s concerns and legal liabilities.
There is genuine goodwill between the two groups to find a way forward. A smaller group of us will continue to meet to find some agreements we can take to the wider group for ratification.
Those present at the meeting were all the members of the BoT, the new school principal Chris Els, deputy principal Andrew Wooster, the Hall Committee and PBRA chair Iain MacLean.
We’ve had a message from NZTA about Paekakariki Hill Road being closed this Friday night. It is a trial to test how effective it is in stopping people using it as a shortcut in heavy traffic, thereby causing more delays when merging at Paekakariki. …
A good turnout of locals and friends netted many bags of rubbish from the beach to the south of Pukerua Bay this morning.
The clean up was organised by the Sustainable Coastlines group (thanks Ben, Oliver and the rest of the crew), with the support of Kathmandu.
Around 30 people started from the pou at 10am and heading along towards Wairaka Rock with bags and a determination to strip the beach clear of rubbish.
The group got almost halfway along the coast to Hongoeka and brought back all the rubbish they found, apart from a very long, heavy plastic pipe and a large sheet of plastic that they couldn’t manage along with all the bags. But they did manage to bring back a large plastic float, which took two people to carry.
A lot of the rubbish was small pieces of plastic, often mixed in with the seaweed near the waterline – hard to see, but if you took your time, you could find a lot of it. There were a lot of bottle caps, small wrappers, pieces of string or rope and lids of all sorts. The pieces might seem too small to bother with, but small pieces are the right size for fish and seabirds to try to eat, and therefore dangerous.
Most of it appeared to have washed up on the beach, rather than being dropped there, but it all comes from somewhere – washed down a stormwater drain or blown into the sea from somewhere – so it’s a good reminder that it is just as important to pick up the small pieces of litter as the big pieces.
Well done everyone, and thanks for all the hard work.
Signing in before heading out Some of the pieces of plastic were very small and hard to see Some of the larger pieces were very obvious Bags filled up quickly with all sizes of rubbish
Coming back with the booty
Just some of the rubbish collected The workers enjoying a tasty lunch laid on by the organisers
Fantastic news! Repairs will start on the retaining wall under the footpath on State Highway 1 between the shops and pedestrian bridge next week. The footpath will be closed during this time, and you’ll have to go around it (along Te Motu Rd and Rawhiti Road, or cut through the school).
We received the following media statement from Porirua City Council yesterday:
Pukerua Bay work underway
A section of footpath in Pukerua Bay will be closed for six weeks, starting next week, due to retaining wall work.
General Manager City Infrastructure Mike Evans says the work is scheduled to start on Wednesday 21 November.
“Work will be done on the footpath just south of the pedestrian overpass at Pukerua Bay (between the shops at Pukerua Bay and Te Kura Road) and the footpath will be closed while the work is being carried out.
“For safety reasons, pedestrians will not be able to access the footpath and will need to use the Rawhiti Road overbridge instead.
“The contractor will put up signs and barriers, and we are advising cyclists and pedestrians to be cautious when they are in the area and use the overbridge when they are travelling between the shops at Pukerua Bay and Te Kura Road. During this time, the road shoulder will also be closed, so cyclists are also advised to use the overbridge.
The work is weather dependent but is expected to take around six weeks. “We appreciate everyone’s patience while the work is being carried out,” says Mr Evans.
We will issue main updates through the Pukerua Bay Residents Association and the Porirua City Facebook channels and on poriruacity.govt.nz/pukerua-bay-works.
It was thought the speed limit was going to be reduced, but Capital Journeys has told us that isn’t going to happen.
This has been a very productive year for the Residents Association. The He Ara Pukerua heritage group has installed information boards at heritage sites, the community garden and food forest has plants in the ground, and we have supported a number of community activities. Unfortunately, the year’s achievements were marred by a dispute with the school Board of Trustees over the management of the hall. …
