All local water treatment plants compliant

By Aidan Ellims

For this column, I will start with some good news. 

All of SWDC’s water treatment plants are now compliant with water regulator Taumata Arowai’s regulations. 

This has occurred because councillors have increased investment in water treatment plants over the years with the result that our water treatment plants have a higher level of protection than Queenstown had at the end of 2023 _ when months of “boil water” notices impacted those communities.

Recently you may have heard that Council is carrying out a Representation Review as required every six years. The results of this Review will affect the 2026 and 2029 Local Body elections.

Earlier this year there was a short initial consultation, but from 5 August the main consultation period will occur, closing on 8 September.

It is important that you read the information and then provide your feedback so councillor’s can consider your views when deliberating.

I will briefly discuss the main points around the Representation Review.

The first is that there is a question being asked as to whether Community Boards should continue to be a part of the Council structure, or should they not be part of Council moving forward. 

I know that there is a lot of feeling in Martinborough around the benefit of our Community Board, while in the other towns in our District, some do not see the benefit.

If you want the Martinborough Community Board to continue doing the work it is, say that in a submission. If you don’t feel there is a need for the Community Board, put that in your submission, but please provide a submission to help Councillors in their deliberations.

Another issue being discussed in the Review is to consider reducing Ward Councillors from three to two, with two Councillors being “At Large” across the whole District. This means that residents of Martinborough get to vote for two Ward Councillors (as opposed to the three we have now) and vote for a Councillor “At Large.”

We also need to consider whether SWDC should establish a Rural Advisory Group, as both Carterton and Masterton District Councils already have this in place. The aim of this group is to provide rural residents and ratepayers a line of communication into Council so that we can receive more information about their concerns and issues and what needs to be addressed.

More information will come out in the consultation document shortly and as I have said before, please provide your feedback on these issues. 

Work to improve the lighting on the pedestrian crossings around The Square will start shortly. These issues were first raised by the community at Martinborough Community Board meetings a number of years ago, along with concerns about the Jellicoe Street pedestrian crossing by Venice Street.

What we were not aware of was that a safety audit had already occurred across the District

identifying that all pedestrian crossings in our three towns were not compliant. 

With that information, alongside the backing of the community, council staff obtained funding from NZTA to upgrade all pedestrian crossings which will commence soon in Martinborough and then continue in Featherston and Greytown.

That’s about all for this month, however, as I am writing the weather has turned cold and wet, very winter-like and some farms have lambs starting to arrive in the paddocks. 

Hopefully this cold front doesn’t stay for long and farmers don’t have any issues with lambing.

If you wish to contact me to discuss any issues, email: aidan.ellims@swdc.govt.nz