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Welcome
to the Archive of
Raglan Ward Councillor,
Waikato District Council,
Dr Lesley Syme
Councillor's column as published in the Raglan Chronicle
Raglan Ward Councillor Dr
Lesley Syme says..
Please Click on the date to view the column contents
Councillor's
Column August 14 2002
"This is the Year of the
Mountain. Monday August 5th I attended an excellent evening hosted
by the Department of Conservation at the Hamilton Gardens on Waikato's
Mountains. I look directly at my mountain. This morning it sat in
the mist in soft mauve outline. Later, behind it, appeared blue
sky. My beautiful mountain is, of course, Mt Karioi. All I need
is Council to put underground the ugly power lines that blight the
picture. On December 28 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman saw
'a high mountain east by north of us' at 40 degrees and further
reported that 'This mountain is in 38 degrees southern latitude."
The next explorer to come by was Captain Cook on January 11 1770,
who wrote 'At daylight, found ourselves between two and three leagues
from the land which was of moderate height and clothed with wood
and verdure.' 'At nine was abreast of a point of land which rises
sloaping from the sea to a considerable height. It lies in the latitude
of 37 degrees and 43 minutes south.' I like to imagine how this
mountain looked before it erupted more than a million years ago.
Now the clouds roll though the dip, where a peaked summit like Mt
Taranaki might have been. In this Year of the Mountain take time
to admire and celebrate our mountain, which brings Raglan its rich
volcanic soils, magnificent beaches, and quality drinking water.
This week I am putting a request on the council agenda to be provided
with an electronic record of all meetings. These would easily fit
on a CDROM disk. I see in the NZ Herald > that Auckland councils
such as North Shore and Waitakere are doing this, and so can we.
It will enable access over the Internet and interested users can
search records by key words. I had a ratepayer sifting through reports
most of Friday afternoon at my place (though some time might have
been spent admiring the view of the mountain) and concluded that,
in this day and age, we could do better than this. It's not that
I don't appreciate visits from ratepayers, but I have to put all
the reports away again!"
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Councillor's Column,
August 7, 2002
"Raglan's
bus services are being reduced because they do not "pay."
In fact, using the latest Census figures for the number of households
in Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Raglan, it seems that Raglan gets half
the amount for buses from Council received by these other centres.
Your Council is halving this contribution again. Bus services will
be discussed at the next meeting of the Raglan Community Board on
August 13th. After an afternoon inspecting different venues for
an extended-hours youth facility support for that at the Community
House will also be discussed. Following a road meeting in Wallis
Street last week, I would like to see simple question/answer sheets
included in letters inviting residents to attend these meetings,
so people can put their suggestions in writing and be sure their
views are heard. I would like a Reserves Committee to be set up,
which monitors and manages all of the Reserves around town. At the
moment only the Wainui Reserve is managed by a local committee.
Finally, I have received complaints about
the obtrusive beige colour of the new Surf Life Saving building.
I do hope that the Wastewater agreement will soon be signed by all
appellants. Spare a thought for the Te Kauwhata Community Committee
whose wish to not share their water and wastewater facilities with
850 other people as part of the proposed "Spring Hill"
prison (alongside the planned Hampton Roads Landfill which they
also opposed) has been over-ruled by a majority of Councillors.
I recommend the excellent Standards New Zealand booklet SNZ HB 44:2001
to the prison designers who, wherever they end up building, could
adopt the recently released Waste Minimisation Strategy with self-sufficiency
in water and waste-water and not drop more sewerage into the already
"dead" Lake Waikare. A local resident tells me that the
desired prison site is to be carved from ridges dotted by about
20 springs with 1.4 million cubic
metres of earth from ridgelines shifted to develop a 27 hectare
building platform.
What a great place for two human waste facilities. Not too far from
the river, filling an already polluted lake, and destroying natural
springs!
Perhaps our local appellants could lend their well practised advocacy
skills for sewerage disposal systems to supporting Te Kauwhata?"
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Councillor's Column July
7 2002
"Last weekend tenants of Council property at 3 Bow Street rang me
because they were moving shortly to their new home and were concerned
that the house would be allowed to revert to the poor condition
that it was in when they first rented it. For some time I have been
looking for somewhere close to, or on, the main street to set up
a place where young people can go in the evening to play pool, meet
friends, use the Internet, watch a video movie etc. Not a party
house. Not somewhere noisy. Somewhere that pays its own way and
provides a civilised, alcohol and smokefree environment for our
young people which is part of the social setup in Raglan. The proposal
is going before the Community Board this week, but unfortunately
I will be in Christchurch. I am asking the CB to cover the first
few month's rent while I gather some funds and community assistance.
There are plenty of places for olds to go at night here but little
for younger people to do, even if they are old enough to go to the
pub. The electricals in this house may need attention, but there
are a number of electricians around town who might like to donate
a few hours to a community project like this. Same, I hope, for
other tradesmen and parents with handy skills and enthusiasm. The
Council Assets manager suggests the changing sheds at Kopua Domain.
Mmmmm. If you want to get hold of me while I'm out of town I have
arranged with Steve Soanes that any messages you leave with him
will be Emailed to me."
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Councillor's Column - June
29 2002
"Well, they say that a week is a long time in the world of
politics. In view of recent events at Council, the past few weeks
have been a long time indeed. I refer, of course, to the vexed issue
of the proposed North Waikato prison. Put yourself in the shoes
of the affected community. A local poll clearly indicated their
wish that wastewater facilities (emptying into Lake Waikare) should
not be used for the 650 bed prison. Apparently the prison requires
evidence of such potential use (as well as access to fresh water)
before it applies for a Resource Consent. Such a Consent can be
heard by either independent Commissioners or by council's Hearings
Committee. For some reason Council wants to "hear" this Resource
Consent - which appears certain to promote dissent and reflect poorly
on its judgement. To adopt this role Council needs to demonstrate
that it has no "position" about the prison, despite favouring it
publicly in the news media. Firstly, the vote on wastewater has
to go to the Assets Committee. Unfortunately the three Councillors
who consider the community's views important, sit on this committee
of five. The Mayor invites the rest of the Council to join in for
the day and have a vote. There is vigorous debate and the community's
wish is overturned. Secondly, the issue goes before the Policy Committee
(which does include all Councillors) with a view to endorsing the
Council's "neutral" position regarding the proposed prison, with
similar results. The uproar is reported in your local paper. Finally
both "decisions" go to full Council last Tuesday before a crowd
of around 60 from the irate community. Same result. We are "neutral."
So much for "Your Community Partner"!
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Councillor's
Column - June 23rd 2002
"At Council we are deep into controversy over community rights and
varying Councillor opinion regarding the proposed North Waikato
prison. My own view on this is that, if the Council portrays itself
as "Your Community Partner," it should behave as such. If a community
in the Waikato District does not want a prison to share its wastewater
facilities why should Council decide that it must do so? Such Council
attitudes seem entirely contrary to the new Local Government Bill
which seeks to give increased power to communities to make decisions
about their own future. Sunday June 23rd most members of the Raglan
Recreation Steering Group (ably steered and driven by Council Recreation
Planner Alan Turner) visited buildings in Pirongia, Te Awamutu,
Hamilton and Huntly. Some are bright, cheerful and making money
from outside their district (Te Awamutu). Others seem entirely utilitarian
and provide basic facilities only to group sports like rugby. Personally
I hope that we can steer a middle course and provide both aspects
for the benefit of this community. There is money about to do this
and I promise that I will do my best to get hold of it! Meanwhile,
if you have problems that I can help you with contact details are
attached."
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Councillor's
Column 16 June 2002
"While
thinking about our wastewater problem (have a look at www.fraserthomas.co.nz/environmental/wastewater.htm
for some established solutions in other similar districts using
wetlands) and our planned recreation centre I have looked back over
15 years consulting to councils in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and
Taranaki, and considered what we can learn from this work. The main
lesson seems to me to be that, if other communities of similar size
and location (such as Paihia for wastewater, and Te Awamutu for
a recreation centre) have come up with acceptable and affordable
facilities, we should learn from their experience, see how they
did it, hire the engineers/builders, go after similar funding sources,
and "just do it" - as the ad says. At last week's meeting of the
Raglan Recreation Steering Group I suggested we avoid Paralysis
by Analysis. We must get this facility off the ground! The Steering
Group is visiting recreation centres/sports complexes at Pirongia,
Te Awamutu, Te Rapa and Huntly on Sunday June 23rd. I discover,
looking through business reports done over the years, that I assisted
the Waipa District Council in 1990 with public consultation for
a proposed Community/Recreation Centre using a CATI survey (Computer
Assisted Telephone Interviews) of 267 randomly selected households
(completed by 207) and look forward to seeing the actual building
on our trip. Other council projects that I have been involved with
over the years include a dog control survey on East Coast beaches,
obtaining a community value for a main street bypass to divert heavy
traffic in Te Puke, assessing the economic benefits of tourism in,
and water quality coming off, the Egmont National Park, measuring
needs in South Waikato communities, constructing resource and public
enquiries databases, and modelling rules in the Resource Management
Act with a decision support system to assist its interpretation
by council planners. Time flies when you are having fun!"
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Councillor's
column June 8 2002
"Many
thanks to those who replied to my column about Youth in Local Government.
Not all under 25 years of age, but full of good ideas. Well, even
in this limited time, it has confirmed what I suspected. I thought
we had consulted widely about community needs for the proposed recreation
centre. I've now got some fresh ideas that have come from young
people who seem to have missed out on the consultation process.
Older people too often speak for younger ones and, as a mother of
an under-25 yr old (just) I
know that we do not usually have the full picture. So too with councils.
I will be posting my replies snail mail (no Emails received!) as
promised and hope for some feedback in due course. Meanwhile I will
make enquiries around town, and from council staff, to see what
we can come up with. The
information that I have received will also help me with the report
that I am writing to Council about the conference. It is all very
well finding out what other communities are doing for youth. We
need to provide facilities for our own younger people, especially
during Friday and Saturday nights.
Weekend bus services to and from Hamilton would be a good start.
Congratulations to Whaingaroa Harbour Care on winning a Green Ribbon
Award for their excellent work. These are national awards recognising
outstanding performance. Harbour Care have done us proud. Not only
that, such awards help with further funding and this group has done
a lot of fund raising over the years, and it gets harder all the
time for established projects like this.
Correction: In my last column I talked about "administrative
Council staff" when I meant Council Management. On local matters,
Steve Soanes has assured me that he will have the plaque attached
to the rock which sits above the millennium time capsule by the
time this column appears. High time too!"
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Councillor's
Column - 2 June 2002
"Well,
it has been a long week with the District Plan submission hearings.
After listening to those in Raglan (and how well presented they
were too!)
I drove to Ngaruawahia to listen to more submissions, getting back
after 10pm. I think I will have to borrow a cell phone in case my
car does not make it home one of these dark cold nights. Some time
ago I wrote in this column about the benefits of council employing
an Economic Development Advisor.
Well, that is what I thought we were doing until changing my mind
on Friday and suggesting that the $50,000 could be better spent
by Council on other things. The amount allocated was halved, and
I learned that the position was now for a Corporate Planner. I can
see why Councillors, who are supposed to reflect community opinion,
get paid so little and administrative council staff so much. They
appear to make the "investment" decisions for your rates,
while Councillors get a lot of free lunches. Finally, the Chairman
of the Community Board and I have asked the CEO Warwick Bennett
to organise the building of the part of our proposed skateboard
facility (ie as much of it as we have funds for) as soon as possible.
My views on the safety of this facility are well known, but I have
never been elected to your Community Board and it is their decision.
The delay is unacceptable. After all, it
is just an expensive lump of concrete."
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Councillor's
Column 25 May 2002
"Last week I went to the Youth In Local Government Conference
in Rotorua and what an eye-opener it was to see what's going on
around the rest of the country and to have 50 or so young people
there already playing a real part in Council decisions. The theme
of the Conference was Pu Maia Rangatahi (The Spirit of Youth) structured
around 3 streams Environment Growing the potential for youth responsibility
and action on environment issues - which is already happening here
in Raglan with Xtreme Waste and Whaingaroa Harbour Care - Inclusion
Real ways of including young people in local government business
and decision-making (which we don't do much of here in Raglan) and
Employment Creating pathways and removing barriers to youth employment
(which the above groups + the newly formed Kai Whenua Organics are
already doing). So while we have things happening here for young
people (Centres like the planned Recreation facilitiy; Surfside
Christian Life; Karioi Outdoor; Whaingaroa Environment + events
like ReggaeFest)- we also have a council which says it has no need
for a social policy and a mayor who is actively promoting the building
of NZ's second-largest prison at Meremere (despite being part of
the Council's Hearings Committee!) alongside the biggest new landfill
in the country. My own view is that we wouldn't need to be building
new prisons if young people had more to do, real jobs and an active
part in making our environment a better place. Raglan already has
its own Arts Council, so what about a Youth Council? I invite you
(ie anyone aged between 8 and 25 years) to Email me at the address
below and tell me what you want (or think young people need) in
Raglan, and what you don't want (or think young people in Raglan
don't need). If you haven't got the use of Email at home or at a
friend's place, you can do it from school (I have talked with the
IT teacher) or from the Library. (Community Centre? Whaingaroa Environment
Centre? Xtreme Waste?) I know from my business helping people with
computers, that there's lots of them around Raglan! Then later we
can get together and talk. Get a page on Raglan Net? Raise some
funds! (An interesting Australian site is www inspire.org.au/; and
a Scottish one at www.cafeproject.org.uk). Snail mail is fine. Leave
me a note at the council office. I promise that I will reply personally
to every message if you leave an address. Or just call UP'n'RUNNING
- - my business voicemail phone no below. I'm not home much at present
during the day."
Cr Lesley Syme
Ph 8256510.
Email: WHC@xtra.co.nz
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Councillor's
Column 18 May 2002
"Last
week I attended a meeting at the Community House on local health
issues. We are spoilt for choice here in Raglan. Many rural communities
around the country have one or no GPs and are hundreds of km over
rough roads to the nearest hospital. We also have our own excellent
ambulance and District Health service and a clear 45 minute run
to a major hospital, personally experienced last year when I chopped
two fingers in my lawn mower You might think this a long way, but
if you've lived in a big city you could take an hour to drive one
block in heavy traffic. Ambulance and medical facilities aside,
we should keep a neighbourly eye out for those requiring ongoing
support eg elderly people without transport; young parents; the
disabled; at-risk kids. Weekend First Aid facilities fall short,
both for locals and for the summer surge of visitors. In other words,
Raglan's health resources would benefit from clear identification
and organisation. Apart from that, I am involved in setting up a
Trust which will raise funds to purchase medical equipment such
as an Xray machine so that we are more self sufficient here. In
these days of computer technology much equipment is digitally controlled
maker it safer, more affordable, and even enabling diagnosis by
distance. In such ways technology is helping isolated communities
lacking access to specialist opinion. Even more advanced, the April
6 2002 issue of New Scientist describes how operations can be done
by computerised scanning and then zapping tumours etc using ultrasound.
"Scrap the scalpel, abandon the anaesthetic!" The other facility
I am keen to raise funds for is a hot pool. A couple of years ago
I obtained a quote for solar heating the school pool, and hope this
will eventuate. Meanwhile many of us with aches and pains would
benefit from a covered pool for exercise and hydrotherapy. I already
have my eye on a spot in the planned recreation centre. My other
favoured project for this centre is a climbing wall. Though, these
days, suffering the long-term effects of being swiped on a ski field,
I don't see myself using it. But, you never know."
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Councillor's
Column 10 May 2002
"I
am speechless. Not because I went flying around the Waikato District,
because I didn't. Early morning I looked out the window, saw the
bad weather, read the forecast, and decided that the flight would
not be a goer. It was, and my thanks to the trusty ratepayer and
accompanying 3-year old who went outside and waved, thinking I was
on board. No, the indisposition comes with the change in weather
and the seasonal bug invasion. To the amusement of some Raglan shopkeepers
this morning, I am reduced to a mere whisper. The Chairman of the
Community Board, dishing out the pharmaceuticals, advised "rest."
Does this mean that I am making too much noise in the normal course
of things? Time will tell. No doubt I will be in voice again for
next week's meeting of the Community Board. The following week I
am spending a couple of days in Rotorua at the Youth in Local Government
Conference attending workshops on Employment, Planning and Youth
Development Strategies. I am sure the sulphurous fumes and steamy
pools will clear my head."
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www.raglan.co.nz wishes to thank Raglan Ward Councillor
Dr Lesley Syme for making her column available to the Raglan's
Premier Community Website
webmaster@raglan.co.nz
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