Kaitake Community Board

Kaitake Community Board

Like many others, I do grizzle about that winter weather. But there’s much to be thankful for. The wet weather here has not had a horrendous effect on the community that was dealt to Auckland and Northland.

Recently I received an email from a good friend, Kay McManus. She was curious to know what the correct spelling of Matekai was, as I had used ‘Matakai’ in the KCB column. For 34 years Kay had always used Matekai and she wanted to be ‘unconfused’ as she put it. I was happy to inform her that Matekai was indeed correct and I suspect I was flat out under the pump and typing furiously to get the column finished and didn’t check as thoroughly as I should have. It won’t be the last mistake I make. In fact, if there’s a wrong word to use in a sentence then I always seem to do it!

Anyway, back to Matekai, my understanding is that Matekai means to be hungry. I’m sure there is a reason why that place has been named that way and perhaps someone can enlighten us all. Now, fortunately, the opposite is true for our native birdlife. There is an abundance of food-bearing trees there that provide sustenance during these wet and windy winter months. Our local Matekai Park hero Graham Churchill tells me tui and kereru winter over in the park, feeding on important nectar sources such as flowering gum, banksias, puriri, and tree lucerne along with the sugar water feeders many residents have hanging in their gardens. Then when plants start budding up in the spring they follow the seasonal succession of flowering or fruiting plants up into the Kaitake Range and on to the Pouakai Range and the mounga itself.

At the moment reliable sources tell me there are over 100 tui domiciled in the park. However, tui are notoriously aggressive so when breeding starts in September the stronger birds will drive the others out of the park so they don’t have to share the food for their young. A few breeding pairs will stay while most of the rest will nest up on the Kaitake Range. The kereru, however, can be fairly inconspicuous during the winter months, feeding and then roosting under a thick canopy for sometimes hours at a time. It is a different story in the spring when they begin breeding and there are frequent and noisy display flights by the males. They are certainly there at this time of year, but just not so noticeable.

Now back to more mundane matters! During our current community plan review, it has reinforced for me how much the unique characteristics of a community matters to those that live there. It, therefore, follows that people should have some influence over what happens in their local area. That is hardly a new idea but often paid only lip service by our territorial authority decision-makers. During the review, the KCB has worked hard to provide community platforms in Ōmata, Ōākura and Okato. Part of that process was the provision of an online survey. By the time you read this the survey will be closed, but right now, with a week still to go, we have received 215 replies with around 1,100 suggestions to the different survey questions.

The review was being done so that that Council service managers could consider the updated community plan in developing their draft proposed work plans and budgets for the 2021/31 LTP. Council is required to provide the budget funding for the first 3 years of the LTP and stick with it unless an unforeseen emergency occurs. Unfortunately, the deadline was brought forward so we had to scramble around and get in a list of point-of-entry projects before our review was completed.

Here is the list of issues we submitted (in no priority order) that impact on the community:

• Address traffic safety issues within the Ōmata, Ōākura and Okato communities, in partnership with the New Zealand Transport Authority, by implementing interventions that make the highway and adjacent streets safer by reducing opportunities for speeding, aggressive driving and enhancing pedestrian and cyclist safety, comfort and flow.
• Address the need for better trail, pathway and cycleway connectivity throughout the Kaitake Ward. A network of pathways, cycleways and bridle paths is being planned and developed. Significant non-vehicular connections north to New Plymouth, south to Okato and to Mounga Taranaki are essential.
• Better protection of significant cultural and heritage sites should be addressed throughout the Kaitake Ward. Engage with mana whenua to ensure appropriate pathways to such sites, and signs with relevant heritage information to be provided, along with realistic protection measures.
• Enhance Kaitake-wide waste management and minimisation processes.
• Better management of freedom camping across the Kaitake area is necessary. Address Freedom Camping for New Plymouth District, which will subsequently address the Kaitake community’s concerns specifically but not exclusively: meaningful and resourced enforcement/compliance and  setting up of suitable and community-approved freedom camping areas.
• Develop an Ōākura CBD Master Plan.
• Develop an Ōākura stormwater network management plan.

We provided further information to support these headline issues and there were further submissions for Okato and Ōmata.

Ka kite anō au i a kotou.

Doug Hislop (752 7324 and douglashislop@gmail.com)
on behalf of Paul Coxhead, Paul Veric, Graham Chard and
Amanda Clinton-Gohdes who is the Councillor representative on the KCB