From the Rangitikei mayor’s chair
Rangitikei District Council received 325 submissions to its draft Annual Plan for 2017/18.
We were really pleased with the number of people who had their say, this year a much higher number of submissions were received than in previous years.
We also listened to 19 verbal submissions on several issues. Of particular note was a very interesting submission from Richard Gower around the possibility of opening a dog cemetery in Hunterville.
When we think about it Hunterville is known as the huntaway capital of the world. Sheep and dog statues are iconic and really visible around the town, I personally think it’s a fantastic concept.
Another submission that caught our attention was from a large contingent from Marton requesting an upgrade and extension of the skate park at Centennial Park.
This group of people put in a lot of time and effort to come up with design ideas and show how the park would be a success. Council agreed to provide up to $50,000 for a community-led project for this park, on the basis of at least a 2:1 contribution from external funds and/or in-kind contribution.
A high number of submissions were on the Bulls Community Centre concept – 77 per cent of the submissions received supported the centre going ahead, so council will now proceed with the current proposal on Criterion Street and go ahead with the next step to sell some of the property it owns in Bulls to fund this project.
The final Annual Plan document will go to council for adoption at the end of this month. It seems like one follows the other – we have also started work on the Long Term Plan for 2018-28 and over the next six months will regularly meet to have informal discussions with some of our community groups like Grey Power, Federated Farmers, our community committees and boards and forestry owners to discuss what should be included in this plan.
One of things I am concerned about is the impact of the ‘one network road classification’, which we are still yet to fully understand the impact it will have on our rural roads.
The proverbial ‘wall of wood’ that people have been speaking about for years is quickly becoming a reality. We are starting to see harvesting of several large forestry blocks, so we need to think about how we can handle the increase in truck loads per day on our back country roads.
Last week saw the last of the ‘computers in homes’ programmes that were delivered in Taihape and Marton. I would like to thank the 20/20 Vision Trust, Tania van der Vegte and local tutors for making these programmes possible, which has enabled several families to learning about technology and take part in the 20 hours of study required to reach certification. My congratulations to all the recipients that have achieved this over the past few years.