Local Happenings

Published as Issue No. 105

June 10, 2014

Runway coming our way? An article in the Dom-Post last seek suggested there has been an about turn and any airport extension would be to the south. This will have a much greater impact, visual and noise-wise for locals than the previous plan for the 300 metre extension, to the north and into Evans Bay. People on View Rd will be most affected. See more.

In an article last year about the extension Richard Randerson of Hataitai discussed the issues, NIMBY and beyond. A discussion has been opened on the website including information circulated today by Richard to the group which has been opposing the extension. [link not working]

Memories, good and bad: My name is Peter Drake, I have been asked to share some of my childhood memories of living in the valley. I was born in 1938 and lived on 69 View Road overlooking Lyall Bay. I attended Houghton Valley School from 1943 until 1950 then onto Rongotai College.

Lifting the creek: Working bee, this Saturday from 2 pm onwards, starting at the playground. Locals will be meeting to continue working on clearing the springs and removing weeds and rubbish. Bring gloves and a drink to share for afternoon tea.

Exercise in disguise: Reminder, Houghton Valley Zumba with Natasha. Mondays at 9.30 am at the Community Hall with Natasha.

Swim anybody? A photo of Houghton Bay taken on Monday afternoon. [No discharge photo]

Norman

Published as Issue No. 104

May 27, 2014

Timetable tweaked: Dave of Houghton Bay Rd suggests people to check out the changed bus timetable. He advises No. 23 route has been extended from 60 to 65 minutes so drivers can better keep on schedule; leaving Houghton Bay 9.20, 10.20, 11.20 (now later) 12.20, 1.20, 2.20 (now earlier). All weekend buses leave five minutes later except 4.40pm.

Planting on the Point: After their successful campaign to prevent a marine centre being built at Te Raekaihau Point for a few years local people have been planting council-provided grasses and shrubs as part of its restoration. Council have now taken this over; several hundred have been planted in the last two weeks.

Waterfront Clean-up: Brenda of Island Bay has organised a community clean-up of the south coast Taputeranga Marine Reserve this Saturday morning. Starting at the bait house people will walk along The Esplanade between Houghton Bay and Owhiro Bay. [No attachment]

Penguins in June: Shortly Little Blue Penguins will be coming ashore around our coastline to mate and breed. Places for Penguins, a volunteer group has produced information dedicated to help keeping them safe during this vulnerable time. They are also inviting people to participate in a survey to report on when and where they are seen. [No attachments]

Norman

Published as Issue No. 103

May 16, 2014

Footpath and Beach: Wellington City Council has provided background information and the proposed design drawings to replace/repair the footpath over Princes Bay which disappeared in the big storm last year. [No attachments] Roading engineer Robert Hon is happy to answer any queries. Anybody like to provide feedback on the proposal?

Heavy Flushing: Maria Marillo from Capacity advises next week they plan to work on the elimination of leachate encrustations in the stormwater pipes by heavy flushing, as part of their treatment plan in Houghton Bay. This is carried out every six months. [No attachment]

Bus changes: Shirlee from Buckley Rd comments: Have just discovered the change to the terminus of the 22/23 bus route. From 18 May the 22/23 Southgate buses will turn around at Medway Street near New World instead of going down The Parade and turning around at the old Berhampore terminus at Dover Street.

Historic photo album: This album has been passed from letterbox to letterbox for the past three years but seems to have got stuck somewhere. If anyone knows where it is, please ask the holder to pass it on as there are several waiting to see it.

Lifting the Creek: A reminder that on Saturday, locals will be meeting at the playground (cnr of Hungerford and Houghton Bay Rds at 2 pm) to clear weeds and rubbish from around the many springs that flow down the hills.

Bill Corkery: Recently we lost one of our old time residents. Bill and his wife Brenda moved into 181 Houghton Bay Rd in 1963. In that time, they saw the valley change into a landfill and then playing grounds for the community. Every December Brenda puts up Christmas Decorations in her windows so children playing in the playground across the road can enjoy them. Bill and Brenda were regular attendees of the Catholic Church which once stood on the corner of View Rd and Twomey Cres. They were also great dancers and have been regularly seen getting fit by taking long walks along the Esplanade. Bill was the treasurer of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association for many years, making a valuable contribution to this community. It is with great respect that we honour Bill Corkery. (Contributed item)

Sign of the times? If the community is asking motorists to be courteous by slowing down when driving up Hungerford Rd, then it makes sense to ask them courteously. [Link not working]

Not sure if it’s because they know we expect to be kept informed but the various local body organisations that undertake work in Houghton Valley are doing a much better job these days of telling us what they up to.

Norman

Published as Issue No. 102

April 6, 2014

Community Gathers: On Sunday 17 local people attended the quarterly meeting of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association, joined by three city councillors. Full minutes of the meeting will be posted on the website shortly, highlights included;

• Thirty years on from when she first took on the role of hall manager, Trish Leith has retired. Without her efforts and those of treasurer and husband Hugh (who is stepping down at the July 20 AGM) the hall would have been lost to the community.
• Bus services: submissions on the modified (modified) proposals need to be in by this Friday, May 9. A draft of the Association’s next submission, prepared by Linda of View Rd is attached. [No attachment]
• Thanks to an extraordinary community effort the exterior of the hall has been repainted and some minor repairs carried out for the total sum of …. $2,545.15c!
• If “Boot camp for beginners” or “Zumba” is for you, two new groups have just started to use the hall, see below.

Lifting the Creek Project: As result of increased interest from the community about ‘Lifting the Creek’ and to prepare for a visit from Council worker Nicci Woods, sessions to share ideas and find creative solutions are being held every Friday at Hornsey Road from 7 – 8.30 pm. For more information please ring Miranda.

Boot-camp for beginners: Is a fun fitness class being held in the community hall on Thursdays 9.05 – 10.05 am. It incorporates weight training, aerobic fitness, core strengthening, boxing and self defence. No drill sergeants! Everyone welcome. $10 casual or an introductory price for 10 trip card $70.

Bus Review: Linda advises that we are still waiting for feedback from Martin Hanley (President of the Newtown Residents Association). He has indicated that residents from Newtown, Berhampore and Mt Cook are willing to support our submission. We haven’t had long to prepare the submission and given it is due on Friday there won’t be time to make a lot of changes. I therefore suggest letting people know that they can also send individual submissions if they have comments and suggestions – the deadline is this Friday, 9 May.

The website link to the bus review is no longer current.

Norman

Published as Issue No. 101

1 May, 2014

In 1929: The New York Stock Exchange collapsed, but on the other hand the Houghton Valley Progressive Association held it first meeting.

The next meeting this Sunday, 4 May at 4 pm will be attended by three Wellington City councillors Paul Eagle, Sarah Free and David Lee. This is a good opportunity to find out how our relationships with the council can benefit the community.

All welcome, meetings are brief; there will be an opportunity to talk to them afterwards over a cup of tea. Further information ring Ken.

Norman

Published as Issue No. 100

No date April, 2014

100 and Counting!

In August 2010 four people received a group e-mail about starting a community garden. Ninety-nine e-mails later this edition of the (grandly named) Houghton Valley Community Newsletter went to 202 households.

Some had a sense back then that people living in this special part of Wellington wanted to connect more with each other, build community, and together address a range of concerns about, e.g. our environment, traffic and damage caused by southerly storms.

The group e-mail grew fast and in January 2011 morphed into the newsletter. Its role evolved to informing about local activities and as a platform to share information. Now there are many contributors.

Remember the archaeological dig, the traffic roundabout at the beach (which locals designed in collaboration with the council), the erection of signs in the View Rd / Te Raekaihau Park, Piebe’s seat, meetings at the school on a range of issues, the ice cream stall on View Rd? The newsletter helped make these happen and bring into existence the Houghton Valley website and Facebook page.

In turn this led to the development of a grand editorial policy for the Newsletter, which emerged over cups of tea at the aforementioned community garden – Something Every Second Week.

Here’s to the next 100!

From All to All.

Published as Issue No. 99: Special Issue

April 15, 2014

On our Buses: For two years Houghton Valley and Southgate residents have been involved with the Wellington Bus Review, with Christine Fowler, chair of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association and Linda Cameron attending meetings and leading the preparation of a substantial submission.

It seems further effort is needed. What appeared to be a very good result for local people may not be as good after all. After Christine attended a meeting last week in Kilbirnie about the Regional Public Transport Plan on Wednesday, and received communications from former regional councillor Daran Ponter, she and Linda have commented about the proposed re-revised bus routes and timetables which:

“… have some significant variations from the earlier plans we were consulted on … it is very important the community be made aware of the revised plans for the bus routes as they may affect some people, for example:

• Travelling on both the Houghton Bay and Southgate services into Wellington City will require you to change buses at the hospital. At peak times 3 buses are proposed to travel direct to and from Wellington.
• The revised Houghton Bay and Southgate bus services will not travel through to the university, therefore travelling to the university from our suburbs at off-peak times will require you to change buses twice each way (and once each way if travelling at peak times).

We would encourage everyone who uses the buses to review the revised bus transport plans and to make a submission to Greater Wellington Regional Council if they are unhappy with the proposals. Information about how to make a submission is available on the GWRC website. Submissions close at 4pm, Friday 9 May 2014″

Linda and Christine are also considering updating the submission sent in last June and submitting that by 9 May, so if anyone would prefer to incorporate their feedback into this submission they are welcome to email information Christine with ‘Regional Public Transport Plan submission’ in the subject line.

Main points from Daran Ponter’s email.

“There are elements of the proposals that are quite positive. However, some communities will now find that they have taken a backward step and that where through routes were originally proposed, bus changes will now be required. Bus routes have also been configured in different ways. So ‘your’ bus may not take you to where you want to go. I would urge you all to carefully study the proposals and make submissions as appropriate.

You may recall that during 2012 we held a series of well attended meetings across the City to discuss and encourage submissions on the Wellington Bus Review. This led to more than 5,000 submissions on the proposals. The result was generally positive – the Council listened and routes and timetables were realigned to better meet community needs. The Regional Council has now re-issued the Wellington Bus Review for public consultation. In the process it has factored in its recent decision related to Rapid Bus Transit through the Wellington Spine(s). I am more than happy to assist groups in drawing up submissions to the Council.”

[Bus review links not current]

Published as Issue No. 98

April 9, 2014

As advised in last night’s regular newsletter all the information for this special issue has been provided by the group formed in response to the proposal to build 13 houses on land on the eastern side of Houghton Bay Rd near the beach.

Norman

Many of us know that a Resource Consent Application for an intensive housing development consisting of 13 double level, three and four bedroom houses for 215 Houghton Bay Rd is currently being considered by Wellington City Council. In fact our community has had a couple of meetings with the developer to let them know our reservations with this scheme, some of which are:

• The density of housing is out of character with the area. Is there any other part of Houghton Valley that is the same size as the site at 215 Houghton Bay Rd with 13 houses on it?
• Overflowing drains are already an issue at the bottom of Houghton Bay Rd. Will the sewage and storm-water systems cope with all the extra run-off once most of the vegetation is removed from the steep site which is then re-covered in hard surfaces, like concrete and other non-porous building materials?
• The community wants to reduce run-off into Houghton Bay by lifting the stream. Will the extra run-off from the intensively built subdivision end up on the beach and in the Marine Reserve anyway?
• Parking is an issue because of all the traffic, including buses, that use Houghton Bay Rd from the round-about through to Hungerford Rd. Will leaseholders, tradesmen and visitors to the 13 lot subdivision park on the on the eastern side of the road causing traffic hazards complicated by a bus stop?
• The proposed landscape plan is not realistic. How can introduced plants grow to 10 metres when the present vegetation, which has taken 30 years to grow, doesn’t achieve that height in this harsh environment?

Our main concern is that we, as a community, have not been notified by WCC about this proposal. Why is the community being left out of the resource consent process? Our exclusion means we have no real input into the Council processes deciding whether or not to grant this Resource Consent.

If the applicants can satisfy the formal requirements for this Resource Consent, then Council has the power to approve the application without notifying anyone. Many of us have already made informal submissions to Council and the application has been on hold for more than 12 weeks with no deadline for the applicants to conform to. If we can further show that the applicants’ management of the formal requirements is not adequate, we can inform and influence Council’s decision to publicly notify the application which will give us the opportunity to be part of the resource consent process.

After serious consideration we decided to get a legal assessment of the proposal and our lawyer will soon make a submission to Council disclosing major issues and problems with the Resource Consent Application.

If Council chooses to ignore these legitimate matters and the Resource Consent Application is approved without notification, we can then ask for a Judicial Review of their decision. It is likely Council’s decision would be overturned and the Resource Consent Application would then be notified. The community can then be included in the notified resource consent process.

To proceed to the Judicial Review stage we first need to form an Incorporated Society. You don’t need to be a home owner or live in the direct area, but if you care about the environment here and if you support the steps we are taking and would like to discuss being part of this Incorporated Society please contact us.

Your involvement is important. If we work together as a community we can get this RCA notified.

Published as Issue No. 97

April 8, 2014

News from the Creek: The first practical steps have been taken to lift the Houghton Valley creek, after 70 years of coexisting with leachate pollution from the old tip.

• On Saturday ten people began clearing away rubbish and foliage to follow the streamlet flows from nine separate clear water springs from the western side of the valley.
• An unexpected bonus was the discovery of koura, native freshwater crayfish, a sign the water is clean and has enough food for them.

Transport Plan: The Greater Wellington Regional Council is further consulting Residents’ Associations on the draft regional public transport plan. The president of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association, Christine Fowler, will attend a meeting in Kilbirnie tomorrow night. Over the last two years locals have been active in shaping this plan as it affects the future of our bus services.

Why 13?: The number of houses proposed for a Houghton Valley Rd development created considerable concern at the end of last year and resulted in public meetings, one with the developer. Jacob, a member of the local group created as a result, commented:

“Our main concern is that we, as a community, have not been notified by WCC about this proposal. Why is the community being left out of the resource consent process? Our exclusion means we have no real input into the Council processes deciding whether or not to grant this Resource Consent.”

Tomorrow a full statement from Jacob and the group will be distributed as a special issue of the Newsletter. Earlier debate is on the website at http://houghtonvalley.org.nz/forum/discussion/217/proposed-sub-division-for-13-houses-at-215-houghton-bay-rd- [Link not current].

Norman

Published as Issue No. 96

March 26, 2014

Word Famous: In Houghton Valley that is. Last Friday was the culmination of weeks of work and months of planning by local people who participated in an international, five day on-line symposium about … water. Their contribution was a multi-media presentation about Lifting the Creek. Links to this will be provided in the next newsletter, for starters see http://blog.water-wheel.net/ [Link not current].

The Winners?: “Senior public transport planner Alex Campbell said big winners would include residents in low-demand areas such as Owhiro Bay, Kowhai Park and Houghton Bay” – excerpt from Dominion Post article on March 15 about the bus review – http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9830785/The-lines-are-coming-down

Norman