Councillor Notes

With the press of a button Councillor Pam Colenso begins the chloronation of Martinborough’s water supply.

After just over a month of having to boil water, I had the pleasure (or some would say the dubious pleasure) of pushing the button to start the temporary chlorination of the town’s water supply on Monday 13^th May.  It is hard to imagine (and yes, I can say it is true) that in a little building in the middle of a farm, we have all this hi-tech equipment that monitors and distributes the chlorine to our water supply.  It is just amazing.

I know it has been a very challenging time for everyone; businesses, residents, visitors, wineries, council staff and contractors, as the network of pipes were flushed to remove as much of the manganese as possible. Thank you all for your patience and understanding over this period.

I would like to congratulate, Rob Brown, Emily Abbot and Zoe Sinclair in conquering the Firefighters Sky Tower challenge in Auckland.  This trio of very able fire fighters completed in personal best times and certainly did their fellow fire fighters and the community proud.  Well done to you all and the money you raised along the way, will certainly help both the Leukaemia and Blood Cancer research in New Zealand.

We also have a new business in town, upstairs above Le Coiffeur, Sue Gower is providing a full range of pampering, grooming and relaxing treatments.  Sue is a fully qualified beauty therapist with over 15 years’ experience, many of you will know her from her time at Brackenridge.  Sue, we wish you all the very best with your new venture.

It is a very busy time for both councillors and council staff as we hear our Annual Plan submitters and grant applications, there are approximately 180 of these and over the next three days many will make personal submissions to support their written ones. Thank you to all who have taken the time to complete the questionnaire in the Consultation document, or provided a written submission, without your input it would be harder to know the feelings of our community.

Enjoy Queens Birthday weekend, it is a time for family, getting some of those jobs done around home and generally relaxing.  Take are and be safe.

Pam Colenso pam.colenso@swdc.govt.nz 0274414892

Cherry picking

45 South orchard in Central Otago is New Zealand’s biggest cherry orchard covering 350 hectares of cherry trees. The picking season lasts for eight weeks commencing in mid December during which time eighty tonnes of cherries are picked a day. 1,800 tonnes a season. 
To extend the season as much as possible seven different varieties are grown. These are maintained by a permanent staff of forty with pickers swelling this to four hundred during the picking season. 
Only ten percent of the cherries are sold in New Zealand. The bulk are air freighted through Queenstown airport to China , Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the USA. Fruit is landed in Shanghai forty eight hours after being picked from the trees. 

Something wrong

New Zealand has one of the highest incarceration rates in the OECD 

• There are 10,000 people in prison (including people on remand) at any given time.
• 62 percent of people in prison have been diagnosed with a mental condition or substance abuse order in the previous 12 months.
• 50 percent of people convicted of offences lived in the 20 percent of the most deprived areas of New Zealand and 30 percent lived in the  10 percent most deprived areas.
• 77 percent of people in prison have been victims of violence.
• 53 percent of women and 15 percent of men in prison have experienced sexual violence.
• 57 percent of adults sentenced to prison are Maori. Maori comprise 15 percent of the population.

(From official Ministry of Justice sources)

“ Prisons are a fiscal and moral failure”  – Bill English

“The justice system is a fully funded failure” – Professor Tracey McIntosh  

Some encouraging statistics

Smoking among young teen students appears close to being stubbed out, a new survey suggests. New research announced by Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa today indicated that, for the first time, fewer than two per cent of Kiwi teens aged 14 to 15 now smoked daily.

The data, from a survey of 29,000 Year 10 students carried out each year by Action for Smokefree 2025 (ASH), showed just 1.9 per cent smoke on a daily basis.

“That’s a dramatic drop from the 15.2 per cent of students 20 years ago who said they smoked on a daily basis,” Salesa said.

The full data is at ASH. Key details:

• Year 10 never smoked at 81% (in 2002 38%)
• Year 10 regular smokers at 5% (in 2002 23%)
• Year 10 daily smokers at 1.9% (in 2002 13%)

However while the decline has been constant up until 2017, the data for 2018 shows much the same as 2017. So they may have hit a wall of the hard core remainers.

They also found that e-cigarette use was almost entirely confined to those who already smoked. It is not a gateway into smoking, but a gateway from smoking.

Of non-smokers, only 0.4% use e-cigarettes daily. However for regular smokers 14% use e-cigarettes daily.