Worker commune mooted for Blenheim
A new seasonal worker complex to house 240 people has been mooted for Blenheim.
Hawke’s Bay company Seasonal Labour Accommodation Provider has applied to build 10 residential buildings on a 1.34-hectare section off Budge St, in Riversdale.
The company has bought a house, which will become the manager’s accommodation, and a large rear section where the complex will be built.
Shareholder and project manager Trevor Pearce said the village would include recreational and social spaces, with vegetable gardens, fruit trees, outdoor seating and space to play sports.
The development, accessed from Budge St, would be run by the on-site manager and six other staff members, Pearce said.
‘‘We don’t leave residents to their own devices; we do have house rules,’’ Pearce said.
‘‘But we’re not running a military environment and we want them to be able to relax, eat well, be accommodated for and enjoy some of their own culture and customs. They traditionally live in grouped environments, and they find it difficult, culturally and socially, to be spread out in rental houses across town.’’
Workers would sleep in 10 single-storey buildings. Each unit would have 14 bedrooms, bathrooms, a lounge, a kitchen, a dining room, and a deck.
Most of the existing trees and greenery would be retained, and 37 car parks would be added.
The rear section had a house, which would be demolished, and a market garden.
A site investigator found concentrations of metals, pesticides and herbicides, so about 20 cubic metres of soil would be removed before any work started.
The resource consent application was publicly notified, and submissions would close on February 8.
Seasonal Labour Accommodation Provider runs two similar properties in Hawke’s Bay, with a third under construction. The Budge St property would be the fourth.
Pearce said Marlborough was not alone in trying to house an increasing number of seasonal workers as the horticulture and viticulture industry boomed across the country, compounding the housing crisis.