From the Mayor

By Martin Connelly

Water services have been a political football for some time. We associate “Three Waters” with the last Labour government, but it had been started by the John Key government, following the Havelock North deaths and carried on by the next two governments. 

Now that National is back in power “Three Waters” has been replaced by “Local Water Done Well” (LWDW). It can be a bit hard to describe LWDW in simple terms. 

Under recently-passed legislation, local councils have less than a year to develop plans to manage and fund water services, to the point where they are financially sustainable and government-approved.

Although not legally required, it has become obvious that the only way for most councils to ensure financial sustainability, is to set up Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) to operate those water services. This is because a CCO will be able to borrow money more favourably than a council.

For those not familiar with CCOs, they are entities set up to conduct activities on behalf of councils.

They are governed, managed and operated at arm’s-length from councils through an independent board of directors. 

Our water services are currently managed by a CCO called Wellington Water.

This CCO is owned by the four Wellington Cities and us. The shareholding councils appoint a board of directors who then appoint a CEO.

Our Council has been exploring two different types of CCO to deliver future water services in the South Wairarapa. One would involve four shareholding councils, ourselves, plus Carterton, Masterton and the Tararua Councils. The other CCO we are considering is one that would include all the councils in the Greater Wellington Region plus the Horowhenua District. … Continue Reading

EVENTS

Wellington Heritage Festival

WHEN: October 26 – November 17 

WHERE: * Wellington Region – 140 events

                * Wairarapa for 1st time – 11 events

HOW: “Crowd-sourced” local events

WHY: Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Entry Price: Not stated.

Personal health record on-line access

WHAT: DORA (Digital On-Road Access) 

digital classroom bus

WHEN/WHERE: Tues 5 November 

Martinborough Health Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Thurs 7 Nov:

Pirinoa Medical Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Ruakok Quiz Night

WHEN: Friday 30 November 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Ruakokopatuna Hall

WHAT: FUNd-raiser

BRING: food, drink, brains … Continue Reading

How Well Do We Know People in Our Community?

Thomas Röckinger, loving the small village lifestyle of Martinborough.

By Lyle Griffiths

Pforzheim in Southern Germany was where Thomas Röckinger lived with his family, the third of six children – five brothers and one sister.

Thomas attended kindergarten from the age of three until he began school at 6 years.

“What I most enjoyed about school was the practical subject which we had each year.

“The project would cover a 3 – 4 week period. Our first project was to build a house made of wood for a neighbouring playcentre. Parents, the teacher and the students were all involved. It was fun. We were doing something to help others and for a real purpose. The following year the class performed a play on stage.

“And then when I was 14 years, I and three other friends had an internship on a farm in Switzerland. When my mother dropped us off, she was very concerned because it looked like such a hippy establishment. The farming practices were old and traditional. The four of us slept in a barn. It was only 10 degrees and simply freezing but we survived.

“Other internships included a stint at a radio station and working with handicapped students, which I really enjoyed.

“Army training is compulsory in Germany, but you do have an option of either undertaking military training or doing alternative service in Germany or abroad.

“I elected to help in a home for special needs people in Massachusetts, USA for 12 months. I had to fund my own fare. Accommodation, food and a small amount of pocket money was provided.

“In 2012 I applied for a position at Martinborough Vineyard as a vintage cellar hand working in the winery. I had already spent a year training as a viticulturist. … Continue Reading

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Could ZERO growth be the answer?

So, Martinborough’s sewage woes continue, and have seriously clogged up the council’s, and town’s, plans for continued growth. Sewage and the matter contained therein does clog things up, true. 

Studies will “help the council decide the level of growth they wish to enable.” Karen Krogh goes further with this dire warning: “a town which cannot grow will inevitably decline.” 

It could well be true that one sign of possible decline in a town is a declining population, but is it equally true that a non-growing population must thereby mean a decline in its coping, its happiness or its wealth? 

What evidence is there for such a claim? Many successful small towns in rural Europe have not grown significantly in a hundred years. What is self-evidently true is this: Martinborough’s growth must be a major cause of the town’s inability to manage its waste – the population approximately doubling in fifty years, along with its ordure. And you might well think too that this extra population and their extra money all contributing to the rates should mean individual household rates declining. Yet rates here have rocketed astronomically. So down the toilet goes that fond imagining, along with the sewage.It seems to me at least that growing populations, far from being a supposed boon to a town, or country, bring considerable difficulties to communities which must then provide, within the ability of local landscape, for the basic human needs of this growing population. What are Wellington’s woes but a similar example? Though of course the present government is trying to cure this problem by making much of the town redundant and assuming the affected folk will just move along.The same growth fetish certainly applies to the entire country. Rates of growth of the New Zealand population over the past thirty years have averaged around 1.3% (at times over 2%); this average if continued means a doubling of the population within fifty-three years (the population has indeed doubled in the last sixty years).  … Continue Reading