Protester takes the direct approach
Kaikohe’s Jude Sebastien de St. Germain de Angulo said Mayor John Carter had promised to looked into his concerns about the pollution of Mangamuku Stream, but he had heard no more — so on Monday he took the direct approach.
He also had a message for Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, after neither he nor his office replied to his emails regarding the grey water he said was going straight into the Mangamuku Stream, at the end of the town’s main street. Nor had he heard from Mr Jones’ party leader, deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
While Mr Jones had said he wanted to get his Kaikohe cousins off the sofa, there were reserves and waterways that had been totally “trashed out” with rubbish and needed cleaning up and looking after, he said.
Mr de Angulo said laundry and other grey water was running directly into the stream.
Northland Regional Council had asked him to locate the source of the problem, which he did, “but they totally ignored that”. Then someone from the Far North District Council had had a look, but did nothing.
He had tried to call the council when pollution was apparent, but he hadn’t seen anyone.
Frustrated with local government, he then wrote to the Environment Minister and Mr Jones and Peters, but he had had no response to date.
He first alerted the councils to the problem late last year, and nothing had been done. He had written to the FNDC six times and been told it would “send someone out,” but it had done nothing.
He believed the pollution wascoming from houses on Fairview Road, and possibly one on Windsor Road. The grey water, which he said could be smelled, especially in the morning, was coming from a pipe on Fairview Road and running down the gutter, forming stinking puddles, then into the stream.