Community Board Notes
WEST OTAGO
Firstly, a huge thank-you to Barbara Hanna, who is the chairwoman of the West Otago Community Board — this is a regular spot where the board has the opportunity to write an article about anything its members wish.
Barbara has done every one of these in the past, and a great job of it. So now I have the opportunity to write about a couple of things that are front of mind for me at present.
The draft West Otago Reserve Management Plan, let’s just call it the RMP. There are 25 reserves in West Otago that are administered by Clutha District Council (CDC) and this document is designed to set the framework to guide the day-today management, the long-term decision making and the use of these reserves in the future.
I must say at this point just about every reserve in the RMP has either a committee, a family and in some cases an individual that have done an absolutely fantastic job for many years looking after these reserves for the public to use.
Most people wouldn’t even know who they are and the extent of their work, so on behalf of the people of West Otago, a huge thank you to them all — you know who you are.
The reserves stretch from Park Hill and Dunrobin in the north of the district, to reserves around Waipahi in the south.
This RMP is not designed to take anything away from the wonderful work that has been done to date, and we don’t want to undermine or alter the way things work currently.
What we do want is a final document that has allowed the community to give us their views on what the future may look like for these reserves.
The RMP opened for public consultation earlier this week, and closes on September 29; verbal submissions will be heard on October 11, and a report will be presented to our standing committee meetings on November 23.
I would encourage anyone interested to have a look on the CDC website or visit our helpful staff in the Tapanui Library/ Service Centre and get a copy of the RMP and submission form.
It has been widely reported CDC has taken back the operation and maintenance of our own Three Waters from our previous contractor. This has been a massive task for all the current CDC staff involved and they have done a wonderful job.
A warm welcome to all the new members of the team. Our last report stated that we have filled 90% of the vacancies, and we are close to finalising the contract for the reticulation.
We have 22 urban/rural water treatment plants, 11 wastewater treatment plants plus the stormwater network, which all involves a total of about 2600km of pipe in the ground.
This is not a small network and I am confident that we have good team going forward.
• Clutha District Council West Otago ward Cr John Herbert
