1504 - KBA Minutes 14 April 2015

Kaikohe Business Association

Chairperson: Steve Sangster – Secretary: Mike Shaw – Treasurer: Joe Nol

PO Box 497 – KAIKOHE

Ph: 09 4011099 – steve@guardians.org.nz; mikes@kcs.school.nz; joenol@xtra.co.nz

Minutes of a meeting of the association held 5:40pm Tuesday 14 April 2015 at the Northern News offices, Broadway, Kaikohe

Present:

Brian Warren, Elodie Vujcich, Noel Birchall, John Vujcich (chair), Shaun Reilly, Delwyn, Linda Bracken, Ken Rintoul, Joe Carr, Sally Macauley, plus 2 staff from FNDC staff headed by Kathryn Ross and 2 staff from NRC headed by Malcolm Nicholson

Apologies

Steve Sangster, Mike Shaw, Joe Nol Carried

Correspondence:

Minutes of Previous meeting

Left until next meeting, as both unavailable

Kathryn Ross spoke

Gave background based on previous history of Council motivations

Water, wastewater, roading,

How to set the levels – maintenance plus build resilience – how much. Essentials and then nice-to-haves. Suggested $10M p.a. on new infrastructure, $1M on community good things

Kaikohe affected: new pool here 2/3 from community, 1/3 from rates – is this the priority vs other items like roads?

In catch-up mode after deferred maintenance etc from the past.

Sally – pool comments, maybe $4M total cost; look to ASB Community Funding

KenR How do we counteract the Whangarei drive for all industry to come to its port?

Egs: WHG supports broadband, but is it government led? Govt wants to see the whole Northland region get off the ground with agreement from the different Councils

Roads: $50M roads upgrade in WHG in next 5 years, but only Akerama curves and 2 small other items for the rest of Northland

Joe – get industries in place, with jobs, and then get the pool. Competitive tension in Northland eg for site for wood processing. Refine Bay bus service and get it going, with Hokianga after that p55/16

Development contributions likely to be waived for 3 years

Infrastructure at top for roads; Ngawha big

Road user charges generated here MUST come back to this region; technology can manage this.

Need to battle for re-classification of SH’s north of Whangarei under One Network. There was a manual that took all into account eg dust and environment

Small contractors removed from contracting system, and now not enough contractors because of policies adopted.

Issues about staff ability and manoeuvre to suit themselves

Underlying docs for public vs private benefit split

$20M debt in KKI – no accountability for those who helped generate that – back to opening remarks where money was spent based on projected growth

Offer and acceptance for eg roads – to receive level of service

Fonterra pays 30% more to run its trucks here compared with other areas

11 gatekeepers for Northland project and we have only 4 reps from here

FNDC 43.5m/person, ratepayer 82m pp nationally 22m/person nationally; AKL gets $72k /km and here 12k/km

Consultation process requires: which option do we want the Council to adopt?

Suggest to fight to get disparity 3% of AKL roads paid by ratepayers and in FNDC 40+%

Councillors want to expose everything – see where every $ has gone

Cycle Trail: Cty Bd should fund enduring and lasting projects like the Trail. NB proposal to cut Cty Bd funding to half

PLEASE read the plans – it is straight forward in its presentation

Individual businesses MUST, IF POSSIBLE submit, along with the KBA itself

Shaun very strongly advocated to bring the Council staff back centrally to Kaikohe.

NRC plan; keep rate increase to 5%

Strong customer service and business friendly focus set by the new NRC members

4 key areas: fresh water management, more towards biodiversity and pest management, 3 cty projects – sea cleaners, native bird recovery and$59k; better digital services,

Use some land mgmt. reserve to fund additional activities eg environmental fund, soil and water, flood hazard mgmt. one key issue – trial a regional BOI bus service (nothing from central govt). OKH, KHO, OHW, KV, PHA, KKI, WPP round route. Add OKH - WPP via Wiroa Road

Advantages – facilities can be used by a wider community than the town itself.

Public transport funding available AKL gets $200pa and Northland $5pp. Can you fight hard for parity? Have had cohesion for the first time ever between FNDC and NRC with reps standing together before NZTA

Capped at $250k, fares will be approx. 50% depending on patronage. Commercial ratepayers will pay twice the rates for this that a resident does.

Excellent for the cycle way

Tourists can then use for travels hopefully extended to the Hokianga

Emergency services funding Was $600k for NEST, propose $800k pa, NDHB contributes $7M eg to the helicopter

Buying land for an environmental benefit –

Query water quality ‘acceptable’ such as raw sewage in to sea at Whangarei Heads and 100 most polluted rivers, 54 were in urban areas. Checking out the urban would be better than a 5am raid on a dairy farm! Why more emphasis on cow effluent than on human sewage.

Flood protection: 4 schemes highlighted

Research includes effects of silting – floods now carry much more silt; erosion-prone soils

Will be good to see synergies between NRC and FNDC

DO read the draft Long Term Plan consultation documents,

DO make a submission to FNDC, and NRC

Shaun wants KBA to make a submission on the butker Centre , that the staff come home

AND: Please put in to the Council Requests for Service for ANY issue, even if longstanding, and including ANY street lamps that are not consistently illuminating.

The next meeting will be held Tuesday 12 May, 5:40pm; Northern News. Invite a business colleague or other interested Kaikohe citizen to come too.

7:35pm Close of meeting