How Well Do We Know People in Our Community?

By Lyle Griffiths

Kate Pritchard came to Martinborough just three and a half years ago. She had been living in Scotland working in Travel Tourism until Covid hit and her job vanished.

Working in Travel and Tourism in Switzerland, Scotland and the United States was a great way to see other countries, but Covid closed the doors. People could no longer travel. 

“I had to think seriously about what my next step would be, so I returned to NZ to stay with my parents in Canterbury. 

“My mother is very practical and creative. She can do anything. My great aunt who lives in London would send beautiful fabrics to my mother, so we had a stash of fabulous materials at home.

“Not wasting the opportunity, we decided that the perfect project during lockdown would be to restore and recover our dining room chairs. I learned a lot during the process. 

“We ripped everything off including pulling out all the tiny tacks. The legs of the chairs needed to be re-glued. The corner blocks needed replacing. The backs of the chairs were scalloped, which was challenging.

“But it was such fun. The ability to restore something old, at the same time creating something new was so rewarding. … Continue Reading

Library cuts reversed by new funding level

A year of library staff underfunding has been ended after the council approved an injection of funds for new staff in the Enhanced Annual Plan, approved late in June.

One full-time and two part-time library staff have been funded to enable the libraries in all three towns to reopen for five and a half days each week.

For the past yeaar the libraries have each closed their doors for one and a half days a week, with additional closures caused by staff shortages.

Community survey results regularly rank the libraries as the most-appreciated service provided by the council _ with a near 80% satisfaction rating.

SWDC by comparison has a low-20’s satisfaction/approval rating among community members surveyed annually.

Councillor Rebecca Gray, lead for the Community, Climate and Environmental Wellbeing committee, noted it was unfortunate that council had decided to cut casual staff funding for the libraries, forcing the closures.

Community feedback had confirmed “a strong love for the libraries,” so funding had been restored. The Enhanced Annual Plan also shows an extra $126,000 of funding for “books” for the libraries.

Greytown groups scoop half wellbeing grants – August 2024

Two Greytown groups have been handed half of the $160,000 first tranche of central government funding earmarked for promoting community wellbeing.

A total of $500,000 of central government funding is available for dispersal from the council’s new Community Wellbeing Fund. The cash was left over from Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Department of Internal Affairs, out of its Better Off support packages that were provided to local authorities under the Three Waters Reform programme.

The successful groups: Kohunui Marae ($49,000), Cobblestones Museum Trust ($45,000), Greytown Little Theatre Trust ($36,000), Ngahuia Wild Bird Rescue ($20,000) and Courage Dear Heart Events ($10,000).

Successful recipients of the funds were able to demonstrate wellbeing outcomes that tick social, cultural, economic and environmental boxes, said Councillor Rebecca Gray. All four are key tenets of the Community Wellbeing Fund criteria. … Continue Reading

Martinborough School Update

From The Headmaster’s Desk – August 2024 

We have had quite the busy term. Lots of events on, and some marvellous results from the students.

Many thanks to Amanda Pickering and her wonderful team of helpers who organised the sporting

events. We had about 70 students representing the school at the Cluster Cross Country competition,

and have 15 students representing the Wairarapa at the regional event. The students have certainly put in a lot of work to ensure they are successful.

Sustainable Education

As part of wanting to reduce waste that goes into the landfill, the Middle Syndicate has implemented a recycling system in their classrooms. This consists of organic, paper and hard/soft plastic recycling. Some of the senior classes will start collecting their organic waste for the compost bin next term. This term Garden-to-Table sessions have been running in our year 5/6 classes. These sessions allow children to grow, harvest and share kai. It has been awesome to see tamariki develop their cooking skills as they prepare meals to share with their class from food that they have grown. We could not do this without our parent volunteers who help run the sessions. Thank you very much to those who have enabled this programme to run in our school. … Continue Reading