News in Brief
Sin bin warning
Waipā District Council says recidivist recycling offenders will lose their bins. The council says ratepayers are hit with a $600,000 bill every year because some residents put contaminated items – such as medical and animal waste – in their recycling bins. That results in entire truckloads of what should be recycling going to landfill. Residents whose bins are removed will be required to complete a recycling test and pay a reinstatement fee before they can use the recycling service again.
Website stats
Our news in brief columns have topped the web statistics for articles on the Te Awamutu News website. Student nurse Anastacia Cuthers’ scholarship with Southern Cross Trust was second followed by a staff restructure at Waipā District Council, a January story about a converted Pirongia church and in fifth the confirmation of a 10.7 per cent rate rise. The home page is still the most visited followed by e-Editions, the pdf versions of your local newspaper
Pulling out the stops
The Te Awamutu-Kihikihi bus
Waikato Regional councillor Liz Stolwyk says she will look into complaints from regional bus users that stops have been dropped from the Cambridge, Kihikihi-Te Awamutu and King Country services without communication other than via the bus driver. Ōhaupō now has only one stop instead of two which left one person who spoke to The News having to go all the way to Te Awamutu and back again, a round trip of 22kms. This report follows similar complaints from Cambridge users. Do you know more? Email editor@goodlocal.nz
Business in the news
Waikato Business News
Southern Links between Hamilton and Tamahere faces an uncertain future as pressure builds on major projects and how they will be paid for.
Good Local Media’s Waikato Business News out this week looks into the funding gaps which are preventing this project and the next wave of infrastructure work.
Southern Links, long seen as a key piece of the southern Waikato growth corridor, remains unfunded, placing it firmly in the uncertain category regardless of the next government. Also in the monthly business publication are columns from former Hamilton mayor Margaret Evans and current Waitomo mayor John Robertson about the future of Waikato local government.
Bay of Plenty Business News
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand are warning businesses to stay on top of their taxes as Inland Revenue steps up enforcement, we meet the lead singer and heart throb of a top 1960s pop group, student nurses getting a helping hand from a Southern Cross Trust scholarship and Waikato’s new dame, Susan Hassall, who says she is staying around until the Medical School gets built.
Sister publication Bay of Plenty Business News leads with an interview with Federated Farmers new chief executive Mike Siermans, a plea from developers to freeze Tauranga development levies and a bright future for horticultural exports following government moves to bolster plant variety rights.
Fees rise
Hamilton Gardens Te Parapara
Hamilton City Council has confirmed fee rises for Hamilton Gardens. The entry fee to the enclosed gardens will be $27.50 for non-Hamiltonians from October 1.
Bridge debate
Bridge location ideas, safer walking and cycling routes were on the agenda at Wednesday’s Waipā District Council Strategic Planning and Policy Committee meeting, held after The News went to press. Also up for discussion was a proposal to extend the Victoria Street cycleway across the Waikato River into Leamington and building safer pathway routes between schools and their communities.
New on the board
Three new independent board members have been confirmed for the joint council-owned waters organisation Iawai Flowing Waters owned by Hamilton city and Waikato district councils. Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua, Jennifer Kerr and Tim Gibson join board members Kevin Lavery (chair), Tim Manukau and Dave Chambers.
Tag team sought
Police have released security pictures of two people as they seek to identify a tagger who daubed the word “lost” on a commercial premise on Milicich Place, Cambridge, at 6.15pm on May 26.
