Our Council: e-newsletter 31 March 2021

Clutha District Councillors were asked to consider moving a small number of standalone headstones from the eastern end of at the Kaitangata Cemetery. 

In public forum at the Council Meeting held yesterday Joyce Beck and Judy Dick raised the issue that these cemetery headstones were in a separate corner of the cemetery and were often overtaken by a holly hedge making access difficult for families of the deceased. 

The last one was laid in 1991 and since then the cemetery had developed in a different area of the land leaving these headstones to be separated from the rest of the cemetery. 

Councillors discussed the issue and asked staff to investigate the matter and bring a report to the next Service Delivery Council Meeting. 

Councillors approved a “sinking lid” and “capping” approach to gambling machines in the Clutha District and adopted a new Policy on Gambling Venues at the Council Meeting on March 31, 2021. 

They decided to cap the number of machines that could be licenced in the district and allowed for a sinking lid option which meant premises with existing machines could continue to operate but if they closed permanently, those machine licenses could not be allotted elsewhere and therefore reduce the number of gambling machines licenced in the district. 

Councillors also considered the option of not allowing the relocation of gambling machines but were aware that this would unfairly affect existing venues that wished to close their premises in order to renovate and when it came time to re-open they could no longer operate their existing gambling machines, and ultimately decided against that option. 

This policy review was completed by undertaking a special consultative procedure and Council had considered all submissions received during the process. 

Council will introduce a new ratio of 3:1 child to caregiver ratio for under 5’s and 4:1 for under 8’s for Clutha District Council pools in Balclutha and Milton. 

While Council had previously decided to not introduce any specific ratios, since then as part of Council’s annual Poolsafe Assessment the issue of no formalised child to caregiver ratio was flagged by the auditor. 

The idea to have child to caregiver ratios is that large families and birthday parties often do not give much thought about how many swimmers they are supervising. 

Service Delivery Group Manager Jules Witt said most facilities in New Zealand now had guidelines, with a majority having ratios of 2:1 for under 5’s and 4:1 for under 8’s. 

Councillors considered the 2:1 ratio for children under 5 within arm’s reach of one actively supervising caregiver, they opted to increase the ratio to 3:1 so as not to be too prohibitive to families wanting to use the pools. 

Both Balclutha and Milton Swimming Pools once again achieved Poolsafe status for the 2021 year. 

Councillors adopted the final Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Plan. 

The focus of the Our Place Lawrence – Tuapeka Community Plan was to identify priority projects that supported the Living and Working Strategy in Lawrence and reflected the community priorities. 

The key areas where Council will focus its support are: 

Protecting and enhancing Lawrence’s heritage 

Whitehaven Street Playground Reducing flood risk in Lawrence 

Mountain Bike Trail Network Improvements to the reserve and car park at the entrance to Gabriel’s Gully 

Community Hub investigations 

Destination Toilets 

Opportunities to Work and Train Community owned or managed facilities

Developing Gabriel’s Gully as a destination 

Beaumont and Waitahuna .

New West Otago Councillor Lloyd McCall was appointed to the following positions which were left vacant following the resignation for former councillor Michele Kennedy. 

West Otago Community Board West Otago Health Trust. 

Councillor Alison Ludemann was co-opted to sit at meetings of the Executive of Clutha Development Inc. as a non-voting member and Councillor Thomson was appointed as the Clutha District Council representative to Clutha Health First Incorporated.

Seven people became New Zealand citizens in a ceremony held at the Council Meeting. 

They were originally Filipino, Samoan, South African, and Australian. 

Mrs Anthea Dorothy Irene Gernetzky Mr Peter Alan Gernetzky Mr Luavasa Malae Mrs Levaai Malae Apela Master Jonathan Luavasa Apela Ms Irene Canonayon Maghanoy Mr Richard Parkinson