Our Māpua

What happened at the April ZOOM meeting

ZOOMING THROUGH PLANNING AND PROJECTS  

Like many other groups and organizations in these times of Covid19 lockdown, the Māpua & Districts Community Association held its April meeting via the ZOOM on-line forum . This worked very well and attracted a number of new attendees- maybe this style of meetings should become a regular feature for the winter months!

 

OPEN FORUM:

Spatial distancing – the increased usage of the Old Mill Walkway during the current lockdown has been  creating  difficulty in keeping the suggested 2 metre distance between people, particularly on the narrow section alongside the school from the beach to Aranui Road. A suggestion to ask the owners of the [wider]private roadway alongside the pathway, if they were willing for walkers and bikers to use this as an alternative route during this period, will be followed up . It was noted in passing that this highlights the issue for Parks and Reserves of how wide future pathways need to be to accommodate increasing numbers of cyclists .

Doggy Doos in Domain–Cr Anne Turley reported back from TDC on concerns raised about this as a health issue for public; sports players and contractors .TDC staff informed her that permanent signs would be erected this month reminding that there should be no dogs in the domain and that in other reserves dogs should be on leads.

 

HOT TOPIC– WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

TDC’s Project Manager, Rob O’Grady – presented a video covering the current main water-related projects. This video can be viewed on the MDCA Facebook page. Rob was then ‘available” via ZOOM for questions and comments from those in the meeting

  1. Stafford Drive Water-main upgrade– noted progress on this and that construction had been closed down during the lockdown with a 30kph limit kept on sections of the road where the seal was broken. “After Easter” the section of water and waste water pipes in Aranui Road between the village and the school will be worked on .
  2. Ruby Bay Storm-water– noted that this project was nearly complete and would this take two more weeks once staff were back at work
  3. Water-treatment project –noted that the design was nearly complete . The plan is to go to tender and hopefully begin work in the second half of 2020
  4. Water Reservoir in Pomona Road – a site survey for this was completed before the March lockdown and it will go to tender in October

 

TDC LONG-TERM PLAN  [LTP]–CONSULTATION PROCESS

Cr Christeen McKenzie reported on the status of this noting that :

  • the process of consultation had begun before the impact of Covid-19 was understood
  • it is now realised that “ the world will be different from before”
  • early engagement will continue but the time-frame has been extended to June 12th
  • input is being sought on projects TDC should focus on for the next 10 years
  • on-line rather than hard-copy feedback is being sought
  • Individuals can make their own submissions and also send a copy to MDCA for a community

response –info@ourmapua.org.  Link to the LTP is on  the MDCA Facebook

  • feedback will be collated by TDC staff and taken out to community workshop meetings

 

  • TDC is seeking a rep from each community organization to be involved in these community workshops and to collate information

( please let MDCA Chair – Marion Satherley know if you are interested – contact:  info@ourmapua.org. Marion will check with Sandra Hartley re availability requirements for those representatives

 

TDC RATES 0% INCREASE

Councillors noted that the earlier decision on rates increase was being revisited with the proposal for it to be 0%.

[Note that since this meeting, this decision has been made and publically reported upon.]

Noted that this would result in a $2million drop in revenue impacting on expenditure in capital development and projects

Cr Christeen McKenzie noted that TDC was working on “ understanding how current decisions impact on the here and now and the future….in real terms we will have less to spend..”

 

COMMUNITY WELLBEING PROJECTS

1            Community transport – this project has been rather “on the back burner” with the current focus on “ staying home”. However, it was interesting that the call on MDCA’s Facebook page for volunteer drivers to support a local ordering and delivery service ( see below) resulted in  over 400 Facebook engagements and offers from over 30 to deliver orders in this area. The hope is that at least some of these drivers will still be available and willing ( in “life after Lockdown”) to be part of a wider community support driving team.

 

Did you know that NCC and TDC are currently surveying residents about future public transport needs and systems.  They note that …”.  Your input will be invaluable in helping to identify the best way to deliver public transport for our community, so we have put together a survey to help you provide feedback.  The survey, for both Nelson and Tasman residents, can be found on the Shape Nelson website, it closes on 9 May and will only take a few minutes to complete:

https://shape.nelson.govt.nz/nelsons-public-transport “

 

2        Community Hub – two meetings have now been held for community groups and individuals interested in exploring the possible development of such a facility (possibly based in the “ old Church”). Three draft objectives were developed for a discussion document to be circulated for input from community groups .

These are to  :

  1. Create & co-ordinate a community facility to act as a community wellbeing and support hub for residents of Māpua and Districts –
  2. Cater for the provision of social, health ,community initiatives to facilitate community wellbeing and wholeness
  3. Provide a caring ,supportive and enriching environment for people in our community

This discussion document can be found on the MDCA Facebook page if you are interested in more detail or being involved in developing the dream!

 

3     Community delivery service – Māpua Top Up Box Delivery service

Resulting from a triangular combination of input from:

  1. MDCA- organizing drivers ( more than 30 offers) and assisting with the launch -600 engagements on the MDCA Facebook post !!
  2. Māpua Four Square – Damon Kroupa agreeing to support and enable the service by permitting packing outside normal trading hours
  3. Debbie Lavery ( & team) setting up the ordering/packing and packing system and now servicing the 30 current customers . Debbie notes that …”we have spread the orders over 3 days (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) and that it has been great to assist many people in the community ….” For further information:

 

 

 

MAY MEETING HOT TOPIC SPEAKER

At the 11 May  MDCA meeting, the focus will be on these community wellbeing projects – updating progress to date and exploring future possibilities. Presenters will be members of the MDCA Community Wellbeing Subcommittee – have your say on how Māpua could be a more integrated and connected community for us all to live in

 

 

Be sure to attend/ join in our next monthly meeting:  Monday, 11 May  at 7 PM,- probably on the ZOOM Forum or perhaps in  Bill Marris Room, Māpua Hall. ( TBC on MDCA Facebook & Mailchimp mailout )

MDCA works closely with TDC to ensure our community functions in a way that suits the majority of our residents. To have a vote that counts, become a financial member of MDCA by simply paying a $10 membership fee to our NBS account 03-1354-0356471-00 with your name & phone number as a reference.

 

Submitted by:  Elena Meredith