Unconfirmed MINUTES
Tekapo Community Board Meeting
22 January 2024
Tekapo Community Board Meeting Minutes 22 January 2024
MINUTES
OF Mackenzie District
Council
Tekapo
Community Board Meeting
HELD AT THE Tekapo
Community Hall Lounge, Lake Tekapo
ON Monday, 22
January 2024 AT 3.00pm
PRESENT: Chairperson Steve Howes, Member Caroll Simcox, Member Sharron Binns, Member Stephanie Hagen
IN ATTENDANCE: David Adamson (General Manager, Operations, Planning and Regulatory Services) Ashley McLachlan (Engineering Manager), Craig Motley (Manager Public Facilities, Parks and Places), Rachel Carr (Facilities Officer?), Arlene Goss (Governance Advisor), TJ McConchie (Tekapo Trails).
The chairman opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.
Apologies were received from Cr Matt Murphy, Cr Murray Cox and Mayor Anne Munro.
TJ McConchie attended the meeting to represent Tekapo Trails. She circulated a page from the groups strategic priorities to inform the community board on their coming projects and activities. The group would be putting in grant applications to support its work.
She then circulated a map of the proposed circular trail near the Peninsular trail, and updated the board on work that had been carried out to improve it and expand it.
They now had an agreement with the Simpson family to extend the loop track through their land. Part of the agreement was to put toilets on the track, so this project was being put forward in the Long Term Plan process in an attempt to raise funds to build toilets. There was a suggestion to call this track the Three Lakes Loop because it visited three lakes.
A second project was to contribute to the cycle track that was currently being built from dog kennel corner to Lakeside Drive, Tekapo. They wanted to add interpretation panels on the track that explained the area, including the hydro story, farming history and community. Photographs showing examples of interpretation panels were handed out at the meeting. The group were going to apply to Genesis Energy for funding to build these interpretation panels.
Copies of the documents circulated during this discussion are available as an attachment to these minutes.
There were no declarations of interest.
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5.1 Minutes of Tekapo Community Board Meeting - 27 November 2023 |
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The community board agreed to remove the following sentence from the minutes of the last meeting: Member Stephanie Hagen asked about who would pay tax on the commissions. And replace it with: |
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Committee Resolution TKCB/2024/221 Moved: Member Sharron Binns Seconded: Member Caroll Simcox 1. That the Minutes of the Tekapo Community Board Meeting held on Monday 27 November 2023 be received and confirmed as an accurate record of the meeting with the change noted above. Carried |
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The township project fund contains $95,000. Was there anything committed to come from this fund? Planting was approved at the last meeting which is yet to happen. The board asked if money from the projects budget could be given to TJ for her trails projects. The governance advisor said they were not currently delegated to do this. The board would think about how it could take on some extra community board projects and bring ideas back to a future meeting. When would the community board hear back on the costs of the sculpture walk? The chairman will raise this with Prue Blake at the end of the event. |
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The purpose of this report was to provide the community board with a general information on engineering activities in the Tekapo area.
Engineering manager Ashley McLachlan went through the matters noted in his report, which is attached to the agenda. Water use has been high and he warned that restrictions may be imposed in the coming weeks. A letter from the Local Government Minister to the Mayor on the subject of Three Waters was attached to his report for information. The chairman asked about the introduction of water meters in Tekapo. The current council policy was that everyone was allocated 700 cubic meters per year and were charged for any use above that. If people were consuming a lot more water it might be due to leaks, so people would be asked to fix these before additional charging was introduced. Councillors had not made any decision to introduce additional water charges, and wouldn’t reconsider this until water meters were in place across the district. |
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The purpose of this report was to provide the Tekapo Community Board with a general update on projects and activities related to the Tekapo area. Craig Motley went through this report. He was broadly in support of the Tekapo Trails projects discussed in the public forum, but the question would be how to fund them. A contractor at Whitestone has completed his playground audit qualification and noted some potential hazards at the current Lakeside Drive Playground. These would be removed and work on the new playground would start soon after. He noted an increase in toilet cleaning frequency through the holiday period and was happy to say he only received one complaint of dirty toilets (at Pukaki). There were also problems with the pay toilets at Tekapo due to a bus driver holding the door open for a long period. This was being investigated by compliance staff. |
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Council Update - David Adamson offered to provide an update on council activity. The Long Term Plan was consuming the councillors. Asset management plans were due to go public for consultation around levels of service soon. Stage 3 of the district plan was also out for consultation. He was reasonably comfortable that changes outlined in the district plan were going smoothly. A consent for a solar farm in the basin had been turned down but was open to appeal. Staff were working on policies related to funding and revenue. The ombudsman has also come out with a decision asking for more transparency around workshops. Community board members were welcome to join workshops. Discussion took place on speed limits and activity with Waka Kotahi. The freedom camping bylaw was adopted, but the council’s compliance manager has left to take a new role. Council was also working on a document regarding climate change and its impacts in the district. The waste minimisation plan was coming out for public consultation in February, and the LTP in April. Discussion took place on whether some of the money in the community board’s projects budget could be spent on essential services like fire mitigation. Ambulance Access to Lakefront Area - Sharron Binns raised a general business item. Tekapo St John Ambulance had a very busy week and one call-out needed the ambulance to access the area in front of the lake, but they could only get the ambulance up to the playground and no closer. Was there any way to open up the end of Neil Anderson Way with a gate that St John could have a key to? Mr Anderson said staff would investigate if there was an easy action to improve this. Assign this to Craig Motley. Mowing Schedule – A member of the public had complained about long grass in one area. Craig Motley said there was a specification for mowing in the contract council had with Whitestone. But in early December contractors stopped mowing because of the risk of creating sparks with a mower and starting a fire. Since then the area had been mowed. Tidy up on lake edge – A member of the public had complained about dead willow branches lying on the lake bed. He would be advised to talk to Genesis in the first instance. There would be difficulty using heavy machinery on the lake bed if a clean-up was required. The chairman said he would feed back to the member of the public who raised this. |
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Water Station and Township Furniture – completed. Remove from list. Gravel pull off area – This would be at the end of the cycle trail. The roading manager is looking at this. Fire break work – leave on the list. An application has been made to a government civil defence fund and if this was granted it would be used on fire breaks throughout the district. Solid waste station – completed. Remove from list. Aorangi Cres tree replanting – completed. Remove from list. Tekapo Hall Security – the combination lock gets changed on the first of each month. The tap was investigated and was fine. Lights not triggering on sensor. Remove from list. Compliance issues – Overflow camping. This was targeted over summer and camping ambassadors had been handing out fines. Late correspondence – An email was received on the day of the meeting regarding the D’Archiac reserve not being utilised. Would the community board consider putting in a couple of pétanque courts? This email was read out at the meeting. It was noted that children’s cricket games were held at this park. The community board would like to know how the park was being used and would like to see that space fully used. A resource consent application has just been lodged for the high ropes course at the lakefront. Not known if this would be publicly notified. The resource consent process was explained to the community board. Agreement to use council land for overflow camping – The community board asked the governance advisor to find out if a previous agreement between the council and Lake Tekapo Holiday Park to use council land for overflow camping was still in place. The governance advisor would check files back 12 years to see if anything comes up. The current name is Lakes Edge Campground, but the agreement would be under Lake Tekapo Holiday Park. |
The Meeting closed at 4.51pm.
The minutes of this meeting were confirmed at the Tekapo Community Board Meeting held on .
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CHAIRPERSON