Martinborough awarded for Emergency, Resilience plans

By Angela Brown

The Martinborough Community Board were proud recipients of the Partnering with Councils

Award at the recent local government conference – for a collaboration with SWDC and WREMO (Wellington Region Emergency Management Office) to offer events promoting Resilience in the community. 

“The real stars of this award are each and every one of you, our community that came along to support and engage with the workshops and participate in last years practice day – big thank you to everyone involved.”

Nigel Carter, Lead Advisor Emergency Management for SWDC, said the events “were incredibly successful engagements with the Martinborough community thanks to the fantastic group of locals and the huge amount of energy from the Martinborough Community Board, and in particular, Angela Brown.”

“The workshops were open to everyone in the community and taught concepts such as, ‘Disasters  break things but they don’t have to break people,’ ‘Let’s Plan Together’ and that a community emergency hub is not a kit or a location but is the people who come together to look after each other.”

Local Government New Zealand judges highlighted the Martinborough Community Board’s project as a great model for councils, showcasing out-of-the-box thinking.

The next Martinborough Resilience Project workshop will be on Saturday 21 September.

The recent power cuts and the closure of Waihenga Bridge are timely reminders to check whether  your household is prepared for such events. Do you have torches and batteries on hand? Alternative means of cooking? Sufficient supplies?

Saturday 21 September will once again see the doors open to the Community Emergency Hub for a practice event. This is an opportunity to discover the role of the Hub, which is located at the Waihinga Centre and will be open from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. 

This is a family-friendly event with childrens’ activities and a free sausage sizzle. You can register on line via eventfinda or just turn up on the day. Bring family, friends and neighbours along and learn how we can support each other in a major emergency event.

The Pedestrian crossing street lighting project for Martinborough square is due top be finished about now. Wwe have all waited for a long time for this project, and pleased to see a much-needed improvement to ensure the safety of pedestrians. 

This board and our predecessors all supported this and we thank the council for completing this work.

The CommunityWellbeing Fund has one last round of submissions on 31 October. Let’s get some

Martinborough projects progressing (more information on SWDC Website).

Pain Estate update: see “Progress stalled on Pain Farm project” 

Caption: Nigel Brown, Emergency Management, Angela Brown Martinborough Community Board celebrate the Partnering with Councils Award.