Eastbourne Herald May 2014

HeraldThe

Eastbourne www.eastbourneherald.co.nz 24 MAY 2014 Ph 562 7500

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Lower speed limit for Seaview Road

by Emily Tilley

Eastbourne residents will “be appalled” at the pending reduction in the Seaview Road speed limit, Point Howard resident John Welch says.

Mr Welch was one of several submitters, for and against the reduction, who spoke at last week’s Petone Community Board meeting that voted to reduce the Seaview Road speed limit from 70kph to 50kph.

In an about-turn from their previous decision in August last year, the Petone board voted four to three to lower the speed limit.

Their previous recommendation to keep the speed limit to 70kmph as it is “safe and appropriate”, was rejected by a council committee last year, who said the board had not adequately considered safety concerns.

The board’s new recommendation will be considered by the City Development Committee on June 17, who will then make a recommendation to full council to consider.

Petone board chair Mike Fisher says he understands the 50kmph speed limit will come into effect in August if passed by council.

Hutt City Council put forward the proposal to decrease the speed limit for Seaview Road from the roundabout to Gracefield Road following a request by the Seaview Working Group in 2012.

In a drawn out process, including the Petone board deferring making a decision in February, this month’s meeting was the third time the board met to discuss and decide on the issue.

The Eastbourne Community Board was not invited to make a recommendation.

Council received six written public submissions in favour of lowering the speed limit, including three from the Eastern Bays. There were 39 submissions in opposition to the

proposal, all from the Bays.The Seaview working group have said they

are concerned about the safety of the road, people working there have witnessed several near misses and trucks find it difficult to pull out into the road.

Chevron terminal manager Steve Flanagan told the board the trucks are now heavier and pull up to 55 tonnes gross laden weight, carry 36,000 litres of petrol and are “not easy to get started”.

In late 2011 the Hutt City Council approved the route along the Petone Esplanade and Seaview Road for larger trucks, following a national law change.

Mr Flanagan said there would be no commercial benefit to Chevron in lowering the limit, “it’s 100 percent about safety”.

Sergeant Allen said there had been some serious crashes but they had been predominantly around the roundabout in the 50kmph area.

Council senior traffic officer Bryan Sparey said a submission by NZTA recommended that if the speed limit was changed to 50kmph it should be monitored. But Sergeant Bradley Allen said, while police would support a reduction in speed as it would reduce injuries, “there are more accidents in other areas and we are more likely to police there”.

Mr Fisher said it was not an easy decision to make but after hearing evidence from other road users he had changed his mind since previously voting to retain the limit. He said he would hate to be part of a group that voted to keep the limit and “then something happened”.

Amber Griffin photographed Pat Moore on Anzac Day as part of the RSA’s project to photograph every NZ WWII veteran in 2014. See more on Anzac Day, Pgs 14-15. Photo: Phil Benge.

WWII Veterans under the lens

The Eastbourne Herald, 24 May 20142

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WHAT’S ON

Eastbourne Community Board wants to know what you and your family think about life now in Eastbourne and how you would like to see the community develop. This will help us represent you now and give any future representatives a clear idea of what the community values.

We’ve made it quick and easy to answer, so please take a few minutes to fi ll out this survey and encourage others to do the same. The more people who respond the stronger our voice will be.

So please tell us your thoughts and FREE POST it back or drop off in the boxes at Muritai School, the Library or the Pavilion.

Responses from a wide range of ages are ideal, so if others in your family would like to answer they can go online at www.eastbourneherald.co.nz

If you would be happy to host a morning tea for your neighbours and have a community board member come along please add that at the end of your response and give us your contact details.

Eastbourne and Bays Survey

What is your vision for Eastbourne?

The Eastbourne Herald, 24 May 2014 3

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Local house price fall a “blip” says valuer

by Emily Tilley

The same three projects keep missing being allocated funding in Hutt City Council’s Annual Plans - Whiorau Reserve, the Eastern

Communityville The Eastbourne Community Board is again

asking Hutt City Council to budget for the projects in this year’s Annual Plan.

cycleway is “our community’s highest priority” and an essential piece of infrastructure for the bays.

The current footpath is dangerous in places, does not meet minimum legal requirements for footpaths and prevents residents from being

able to walk or cycle out of their communities, they say.

Board members say they believe council should fund essential infrastructure such as the $8 million walkway before considering funding

Riddiford Gardens.After missing out on a NZTA subsidy, the

council has deferred any work on the walkway

subsidy is granted. The board is asking council to commit to

funding completion of the walkway over the next five years whether or not they get the NZTA funding. Funded by council this would amount to an annual budget spend of $1.6 million.

The board say it is “extremely disappointed”

By Jessy Edwards

Eastbourne house values are down 5.5 per cent from market peak in 2007, depreciation rivalled in the Wellington region by just five other suburbs: Taita, Wainuiomata, Ebdentown, Naenae, and Paremata.

CoreLogic analytics state that apart from the stark drop from the 2007 crash, Eastbourne residents have seen little movement in the value of their homes over the last few years, with house

However, manager of the Eastbourne Professionals office Luke Jansen says Eastbourne is still a strong property location.

“I still believe Eastbourne is a preferred part of the region - it’s quality real estate and there are a lot of buyers.”

customers who have a mortgage deposit of less than 20 per cent of the home’s value, have decreased the market.

“First home buyers are feeling the pinch - but there are still good lenders out there giving mortgages,” he says.

The median number of days for a house to sell in Eastbourne increased from 53.5 in August

Nineteen sales were made from January to March this year, down from the same period last year.

Mr Jansen says high expectations can be a barrier to a house selling in Eastbourne.

“I believe properties have probably stayed on the market longer than the preferred time, and I put that down to sellers expectations being just above the market,” he says.

Previous Eastbourne homeowner Rebecca Bygraves thinks the market was stronger in 2010, when she sold her house in the village.

“We bought our house in early 2010 and we sold for a profit two months later,” she says.

The Bygraves moved to Eastbourne from Christchurch, being drawn by the charm of Eastbourne and of the house they had seen online.

However ,the young family found they were not close enough to the amenities they needed, and after renovating the house and adding a bedroom, they resold to another family.

“They had missed out a few times - it was so competitive then. They put in an offer before it closed and we accepted.

“That was how hot the market was then.”Local valuer Spencer Logan has been

following the Eastbourne market for about thirty years, and warns against the predictions of “gloom and doom merchants”.

He says Eastbourne did experience a drop from 2007 to 2008, and 2011 was “very difficult”.

“But 2012 was steady and so was 2013.”Mr Logan says competition from 76

new Clyde Quay apartments at the Overseas

house sales.“There has been a flood on the upper [price]

level - so that has to affect the Eastbourne market.”

He believes “societal changes” can explain why Lowry Bay properties might be slow to sell.

“The younger people coming in want Eastbourne or Days Bay, to be closer to parks and schools and shops and ferries. That’s a societal change I guess.”

However, he reassures locals that the housing market has ebbs and flows, and that Eastbourne is still desirable.

“There are plenty of examples of blips in the property market during the years…but we’ve still got the Harbour and the beaches and the hills and parks and shops within walking distance, and safe communities.”

Community board tries to get old projects movingthat the project to upgrade Whiorau Reserve is repeated delayed and continues to be deferred.

The current project was developed in 2009, consulted on at that time and funding was

in one year. However, it was deferred and now doesn’t

The board is requesting that the development go ahead with a budget of $220,000 brought

The Eastbourne Communityville project has been on the table since 2006 and the board has repeated last year’s request for $5000 to support the formulation of a constitution and project plan, saying again that they are “in a position to make some positive progress with it”.


If:o

o

o

… then let’s have a casual chat.

Residents urged to fill in surveyby Emily Tilley

The Eastbourne Community Board is hoping to get a wide response to a survey of residents in order to be able to better represent the community as a whole.

The survey of Eastern Bays residents will be used by the board to establish “clear priorities” for the next few years and help them decide where best to spend their time and energy, board chair

“We all think we agree on what we value about living here but this will tell us whether it is accurate,” she says.

Although each household will receive only one paper copy of the survey, it is also available online and the board hope more than one person per family will complete the survey. As an example, teenagers may have different priorities from their parents, Ms Horrocks says. “We would like to hear what they have to say.”

Questions have been formulated around issues that have arisen locally over the last few years but also allows for broad comment on what

people feel is most important for the area.The questionnaire asks how long respondents

have lived in the bays. “There is a constant influx of new residents and we are interested in finding out whether their views are different from those born and bred here,” Ms Horrocks says.

Another reason for running the survey is to establish “a baseline of needs and dreams for Eastbourne and the Bays” in case the board are disestablished by amalgamation, Ms Horrocks says.

“That way Eastbourners will have evidence to use in discussions with any future representatives who may be more remote than now.”

If a single-unitary authority is set up for the Wellington, the two-tier system dictated by Local Government Act means community boards would have to be abolished.

“We are very keen for people who would be willing to host a neighbours morning tea and have a community board member come along please note this on their survey form.”

- To fill out the survey online go to www.


by Emily Tilley

A group of Year 8 Muritai School pupils

competition.The group of seven “art ambassadors”,

including art leaders Sally Bird and Mary Heath, spent several weeks working on two panels for the competition.

Run by Hutt City Council and construction company Naylor Love, schools were invited to submit panels on the theme, “what we love about Hutt City”.

“There were quite strict rules,” Sally says.

supplied by Resene could be used, there had to be a black 5mm border and the school’s name or logo had to be incorporated into the design.

The group spent lunch times as well as art class time researching, planning and painting the murals, Mary says.

The children took charge of the project from the beginning, “which was good for us as teachers,” teacher Lisa Allen says.

After seeing how much effort the group put in, it was great that they were rewarded by gaining a place in the competition, she says.

The murals now decorate the fence around the construction site of the council’s administration building which is undergoing seismic strengthening.

As building work is expected to take around two years, the mural project is designed to enhance the area and add interest while the work takes place.

“Driving along and seeing them up, it looks

Muritai’s art ambassadors have now already started work on another mural art competition, this time a 3D work based on butterflies

tha t w i l l b e displayed in the junior school’s butterfly garden.

A fur ther mural project to rejuvenate the weathered murals on one of the junior school’s exterior walls is planned for later in year. As this project wil l be quite large and time consuming, it is hoped some members of the community will help the project, Ms Allen says.

by Emily Tilley

Continual double-parking outside Muritai School has to stop as it is putting children’s lives in danger, Community Constable Dave Tweedale says.

Drivers double parking outside the school to drop off and pick up their children are just

he says.Constable Tweedale says there are always

free parking spaces in the village and people can just drive and walk a little further.

At the moment he is focussing on educating the offenders but if that doesn’t work he will have to start ticketing, he says.

People tend not to double park when they

however others are noting number plates and he will be calling offenders to talk to them, he says.

Parking alongside the main Muritai entrance is limited to 10 minutes at school drop off and pick up times and parents adhering to parking limits would help to free up the parking spaces for others.

Lazy parkers endangering kids

Hard work pays off for Muritai School artists


Local children to benefit from learning programmeby Emily Tilley

Three Eastbourne children may have a chance to take part in a ground-breaking intensive learning programme for children with learning disabilities.

The Arrowsmith programme addresses learning disabilities through neuroplasticity. It has created waves worldwide and is currently run in 50 schools internationally, including six in Australia and three in Auckland.

Up until now it has been unavailable in Wellington and some parents have even made the move to Canada to enable their children to take part in the programme where it first started in 1978.

Now plans are well underway for the programme to be run at Samuel Marsden

parents will have to pay fees to cover the costs of the programme, the school have agreed to run it at no profit to the school.

For three Eastbourne children it is the chance to take part in a programme designed to address their specific learning abilities and after three years enable them to continue in mainstream education without special education assistance.

The programme was developed by Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, a Canadian woman who struggled for years with learning difficulties herself before she developed a series of cognitive exercises that worked on the weak parts of her brain.

Aged 26, Ms Arrowsmith-Young’s logical and verbal impairments were so severe that she still couldn’t tell the time. Her breakthrough came when she learnt the story of a man who had difficulties similar to her own after being shot in the brain.

She concluded that part of her brain had been

malfunctioning since birth. After discovering research that showed that the brain continues to reshape itself based on life experiences, a concept called neuroplasticity, she decided to try stimulating the part of her brain that wasn’t functioning properly.

The first exercise she created for herself involved hours of working on two-handed clocks to force her brain to recognise the relationships between the hands. She learnt to tell the time and went on to add a third and fourth hand because she wanted her brain to work harder.

She says after three to four months she realised that something significant had changed.

After her initial success, Ms Arrowsmith-Young went on to create more exercises developing other parts of the brain. She now has a masters degree in school psychology and has published a book, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, about her experiences.

She founded the Arrowsmith programme over thirty years ago to help children by addressing learning disabilities through neuroplasticity.

Children are assessed before beginning the programme and then continually throughout with each child following an individual programme within a normal classroom environment.

Teachers are trained by Arrowsmith program coordinators who then monitor and provide support for every student.

Two teachers from Wellington will travel to Canada to be trained with the aim of beginning a daily morning class for children aged between eight and 13. Eight families have confirmed that they would like their children to take part and

Barbara Arrowsmith-Young.

there are still two places available.Marsden has agreed to the programme being

run from the school, however the families still need to raise $20,000 towards teacher training and set up costs.

- For donations to help bring the Arrowsmith programme to Wellington go to www.givealittle.

photography

www.sueallmanpeople.co.nz

562 0154


Ex board member is keen for amalgamationby Emily Tilley

Former Community Board Derek Wilshere would like to see the amalgamation of councils in the Wellington region - even if it means the demise of community boards.

Mr Wilshere is a member of the Better

amalgamation of councils in the Wellington region and a two tier system consisting of a “single unitary authority” or council for the region with local boards for each of the current cities.

While some argue for amalgamation because they see it as a more efficient or cheaper form of local government, “I just say better,” Mr Wilshere says.

Local government law only allows for two tiers of governance, so community boards would have to be abolished if amalgamation went ahead. While he could support law changes and the retention of community boards, their demise is no reason to stop amalgamation, he says.

“I don’t have any problem with it.” Even if there were a law change, if there

were elected community boards with actual responsibility for planning for the area they would need expert staff to advise. With not enough work for dedicated staff for one board area, boards would have to share and problems would arise, he says.

Instead advisory committees could be formed to consult on specific plans. These could be people with an interest appointed on an adhoc basis, Mr Wilshere suggests.

Mr Wilshere says Hutt City Council have failed to recognise the worth and value of community boards.

“If they chose to, they could involve them in the process a lot more,” he says.

The council encouraged the Eastbourne Community Board to come up with a local plan, then “never took any notice”, he says.

He says there has to be a more collaborative way to work and what is currently happening in Auckland is the example. Local boards have a huge responsibility for plans and are widely

consulting locals, he says. “They are working very hard up there and it

seems they have turned a corner,” Mr Wilshere says.

A new system in the Wellington region under a single unitary authority would be a chance for change, he says.

“The process has got to be more democratic than now. People are not involved enough,” he says.

“We need to breathe life into the community and get people involved.”

What Hutt City Council has put forward about amalgamation has been “scaremongering”, Mr Wilshere says. Instead he believes open debate is needed about how things can work in the future and what is best for the region.

Having worked and been involved in local government for years, Mr Wilshere sees a better way forward for the region.

“What I would be hopeful of is that we would get a different sort of people involved,” he says. “The sort of people who are in local government are too worried about patch protection, they’re the wrong sort of thinkers.”

For the last nine years the Hutt City Council have done nothing towards improving the city, yet since the possibility of amalgamation has arisen they are finally spending money on the things people want - and don’t want, he says.

The Hutt is a dormitory city to Wellington and that’s not going to change, Mr Wilshere says.

Facilities in Wellington don’t necessarily need to be replicated, an example is the proposed Petone Arena.

If there is a regional need for another smaller stadium then it needs to be looked at on a regional basis and the region needs to decide where it would best be situated, he says.

Another example is the civic centre proposed by the council.

“The Hutt needs a convention centre like a hole in the head,” Mr Wilshere says.

He reasons that at the moment there is not enough accommodation or interest in the area to attract people to use a convention centre in the Hutt.

In fact with the possibility of amalgamation

on the Town Hall and civic centre should be “mothballed” until the future of local government is more concrete.

Instead of looking to provide new types of facilities, the Hutt should be concentrating on what it can do well, Mr Wilshere says. Industry is one of the Hutt’s strengths and with the land at Seaview, “it can be a really strong hub”, he says.

The Hutt aspires to be a “good place to live, work and play” and has some good and improving sporting facilities, he says.

“At the moment it doesn’t quite get there, but it could.”

Mr Wilshere says he has a strong view that there are a number of functions best carried out regionally: any services to do with water, such as drinking water, sewerage and stormwater; flood protection; transport; regional parks; emergency management and regional economic development.

“They’re the big ones. They haven’t got boundary limitations,” he says.

A second tier of local boards would reflect the current local city boundaries. For example, there would be a Hutt board for the current Hutt City.

Each local board would get a guaranteed budget to use for their community within guidelines set by the larger regional council.

Rather than have a mayor for each city, each board would elect a chair. “That board would elect its own leader, someone the other representatives could work with… there would be no factions immediately,” he says.

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ECB says no to Petone arena

by Emily Tilley

The Eastbourne Community Board has told Hutt City Council it does not support the Petone Arena proposal, suggesting $25 million could be spent to much greater community benefit.

In their submission on council’s Draft Annual Plan, the board said building a stadium would not be a wise use of council money.

Hutt City Council is proposing investing $25 million over the next three years to build a stadium that would be both a community facility and “home to the Phoenix Football Club”.

The board said that money could instead be spent in ways of far more benefit to the community.

“This annual plan pays little attention to the needs of women and young families. For example, community houses, which are in dire need of maintenance, will get $255,000 spread among them.”

They said presentation of the arena proposal in the Draft Annual Plan is biased.

“There is a major list of nine supposed advantages and a half sentence mentioning there are some risks.”

The plan for the arena described in public meetings is not the one presented in the Draft Annual Plan so many submissions will not be based on the latest information and there is “no real project to support”, the board said.

The board’s submission stated that, “the project lacks a clear plan, realistic feasibility study or firm commitment from the Phoenix who do not have an A-league licence secured for the next ten years.”

It also comments on the likely negative effects on the Petone community balanced by very few minor benefits.

“As the Petone Rugby Club has pointed out

there would be a major loss to local sports, not

Parking issues have not been addressed and the arena would be likely to have a detrimental effect on neighbouring residents with crowds, noise, traffic and possibly anti-social behaviour by fans after games. The suggested benefits are slight.”

The board’s submission also said the proposal ignores the possible effects of earthquakes or climate change and such a major facility should be part of a regional plan.

The ECB has also come out in support of the retention and upgrading of the existing Hutt City Town Hall.

As part of this year’s Draft Annual Plan Consultation, Hutt City Council asked for people to choose whether they supported either: option 3E+, the demolition of the Town Hall and the construction of a new civic centre or option 3F, the retention and upgrade of the Town Hall and construction of a new civic centre.

In their submission to council, the board questioned why the earlier proposal to seismically strengthen the Town and Horticultural Halls, without the construction of a new civic centre building was not presented to ratepayers. That option would have retained both halls at much less cost of the proposals put forward.

Building a new civic centre building is a risky investment of ratepayers’ money with only a vague business plan to support the figures given on the costs and benefits of the alternative options, the board say.

“We have very little information on which to form an opinion of the two proposals,” the board wrote in their submission.

As the board strongly supports the retention and upgrading of the Town Hall and as Option 3F “appears to be a more flexible and useful building”, the board chose to support 3F of the two options.

Celebrate life with fl owersLaurina Wylie0221964618

[email protected] oraart.co.nz


For real estate in Eastbourne & Bays during the months February 2013 - April 2013 REINZ reports as follows:

25 homes sold at a total value of $19,685,500

The 25 sales were confi rmed as follows:

8 between $400,000 and $599,0007 between $600,000 and $799,0005 between $800,000 and $999,0005 above $1,000,000

These fi gures refl ect the impact the restrictions placed some months ago on borrowers with less than 20% deposit, with all sales at $400,000 or above during the period. However, the message that LVR borrowing is still possible seems to have reached buyers at the more modest end of the scale and enquiry in that price bracket has lifted in recent weeks.

And what an amazing month April turned out to be for the Eastbourne property market! Sixteen contracts written and 9 confi rmed sales – all by our offi ce.

If you are thinking of selling in the near future, don’t wait for next Spring – we have buyers who want to buy now. Call me for a free, no obligation assessment of where your house sits in the market and how to achieve the best possible result.

Wishing you a superb month!

Shaun Barnett.

by Emily Tilley

Of around 1000 DOC tramping huts in New Zealand Shaun Barnett has visited around 700 and has discovered that many have fascinating stories behind their creation or the people who have stayed in them.

Co-author of a book about back-country huts Shelter from the Storm, Shaun will be sharing some of the history and tales of the huts at an EHEA meeting next month.

An ardent tramper, at first huts for Shaun were just a roof over the head for the night. Then he started to notice that the huts he was staying in had different characters and were from different eras and he began to become interested in their stories.

One such hut is “Asbestos Cottage” in Golden Bay, named for its proximity to an asbestos seam rather than its construction materials.

In the early 1900s a couple named Annie and Henry exiled themselves to the cottage after leaving failed marriages.

The couple disappeared into the mountains

and lived at the cottage for around 30 years, Annie only ever leaving the bush twice in that time.

When they left for the cottage it was Edwardian times and Annie continued to dress in the style of the day she went into the bush for the whole time she was there. She did sometimes entertain visitors, formally dressed and providing a morning tea of scones on doilies.

There is also a history and story behind the construction of the huts.

Early hut builders went to incredible efforts to get materials into the bush, then with the advent of helicopter usage there was an explosion of hut building in the 1950s and 60s when with the help of helicopters more than one hut per week was being added to the network.

Shaun says huts have an important role for people wanting to escape the city and love the bush. “We’ve got a valuable network of huts, probably one of the best in the world.”

- Anyone interested in hearing Shaun talk about huts is welcome to attend the EHEA AGM at St Alban’s Church Hall, 8pm Monday June 16.

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Seduction and mid-life crises on Matiu/Somes Is.

Eastbourne Forest Ranger Rod Sutherland says they used to call Matiu/Somes Island “Coronation Street” when he lived there with eight other families in 1975.

Nowadays the island could just as easily be a sitcom with the animals the stars.

Mrs Mac the tuatara, who has been going steady with a male for some time, has recently been seen gallivanting with a male 25 years her junior.

The sixty-five-year old female has developed a fondness for the spritely 40-year-old from across the track, and her ex doesn’t seem too pleased.

“There’s a toy-boy who’s turned up who she’s taken a preference to,” ranger Jerry Wellington explains to a young family.

“Maybe because the other one bit a section of her tail off.”

With tuatara living to up to 130 years - Mrs Mac may just be having a mid-life crisis.

A tuatara prowls the predator-free environment on Somes Island. Photo supplied by Matiu/Somes Island Charitable Trust

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So m e s I s l a n d v i s i t o r s might also hear about h o w t h e i s l a n d ’ s c r e w in c re a s ed their sheep gene pool with a hire-a-ram off TradeMe.

“ H e came hog-t i ed in a s a c k o n the ferry,” D O C ranger Iain W i l s o n explains.

“He had a m o n t h a n d h e pretty much impregnated them all, then we sent him off again - not a bad job!

In a first of four part series about Matiu/Somes Island, Massey University journalism student Jessy Edwards looks at some of the older residents of the island.


Practical learning motivates local studentsby Emily Tilley

Building on a successful environmental science programme centred around their vegetable garden, San Antonio School is taking the learning opportunities one step further with the installation of a weather station.

By looking at data collected from the weather station, pupils will be able to look at the links between weather changes and vegetable growth, such as how temperature and UV levels affect growth rate and the relationship between humidity and fungal growth.

Pupils have been using the garden for several years to produce food for their weekly healthy lunch on “Foodie Fridays” and learn about the life cycle of plants.

Recently the learning opportunities have been extended with the addition of planter boxes closer to the classroom block making plants more accessible on a daily basis and creating “more teachable moments,” principal Therese Young says.

“The garden is starting a new phase.”At the moment the children are taking part

in a bean monitoring project with the help of volunteer helper Sandy Laing.

Every Wednesday they measure and weigh the beans and track their growth.

Such practical projects teaching science and maths give the children “motivation for

learning”, Ms Young says.Ms Young is excited by the addition of

the weather station which will add to those opportunities, she says.

“I don’t know that there are many schools

San Antonio School gardeners will soon be able to learn more about the effects of weather on their plants.

New Dental HygienistEastbourne Dental Centre is thrilled to welcome a new addition to our team, Lisa Bailey. Lisa has been with us for several months now and has proven to indeed be a great clinician, friendly, caring with that English charm. She has recently moved to NZ from England with her young family.

then later retraining and qualifying in Dental Therapy and

with great pleasure we introduce Lisa.

For any oral hygiene education/advice, care and scaling and polishing needs please don’t hesitate to call the surgery on Ph: 5627506.

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that have their own weather station.”The weather station, purchased through a

grant from the Bayer Primary School Science Fund, will be installed in the school grounds and linked to the school’s server.

The online data will also be shared via the school’s website so it is available to the wider community.


Faith in the Community

This column of church news and views is sponsored by St Alban’s Anglican,

St Ronan’s Presbyterian and San Antonio Catholic Churches.

Walking with Grief

We are aware that many families and friends within our community have experienced the loss of loved ones in these past weeks. In a small community we feel those losses very keenly. I want to offer the following poem for you, as we walk together through the season of grief.

Do not hurry as you walk with grief; it does not help the journey.Walk slowly, pausing often: do not hurry as your walk with grief.Be not disturbed by memories that come unbidden.Swiftly forgive; and let Christ speak for you unspoken words.Unfi nished conversations will be resolved in Him. Be not disturbed. Be gentle with the one who walks with grief. If it is you, be gentle with yourself. Swiftly forgive; walk slowly, pausing often. Take time, be gentle as you walk with grief.

God Bless

San Antonio’s: Children’s Mass on Sunday 1st June at 9.30am. All welcome, morning tea afterwards. Celebrant: Fr Eddie Condra.St Alban’s: This term our Youth Group will take part in a discipleship weekend with our Diocese. Do get in touch if you have college aged young people who might like to be part of our youth group activities.

Eastbourne a hundred years ago

I hope to paint a little picture for you of Eastbourne - a hundred years ago.

About the only thing that hasn’t changed here in the last 100 years - is the shape of the hills.

The beach has definitely changed its line, shape and proximity to the hills.

The eastern hills back in 1914 were either bare, or scrub-covered, with pockets of bush in the gullies and a number of sand hills between them and the harbour.

Just 560 people lived here in 1911(according to the census of that year), and more than one-third of the 250-odd houses were baches or weekend cottages.

There were no ‘Village shops’ as we know today. Milk was delivered to your back door by the farmer from Gollans Valley. Meat came once a week on horse and cart from Petone and fresh fish and vegetables were sold door to door by the local Italian families.

There were just four cars in the borough. The streets were all unsealed, sandy and dusty, muddy or flooded - depending on the season.

But numbers of permanent residents were expanding rapidly as the ferry service, now owned by the Borough Council, had begun regular service between Wellington City and both Days Bay and Eastbourne.

By 1914 the population had nearly doubled to 1,000 full time residents. This meant 2,000 when you added the summer families.

The Borough, formed by act of Parliament in 1906, was actively encouraging settlement, and the East Harbour Association was working hard on road and bridge improvements and the Eastbourne Beautifying Society was planting trees along the main street edges. These tall Norfolk pines we meet under this morning are just a few of these trees that were planted way back then and in 1914 would have only been approximately 4 feet tall. School children helped plant and then nurture them afterwards.

Muritai School which had opened in 1897 was now bursting at the seams. The Italian families were its mainstay, along with the farmers’ families, but the summer families also enrolled their children at the school for a few months.

This made life for the teaching principal at the two-room school very difficult. 113 children were admitted in the year to February 1914, but the average attendance was just 69, putting the roll 12 below the 81 needed for a third teacher.

Childhood and other diseases - polio, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid, tetanus - affected class numbers and the school had to be closed and disinfected after some outbreaks.

Continues next page

John Stevenson spoke at the 2014 Anzac Day service about the town one hundred years ago. We decided to reproduce the speech in this month’s Eastbourne Herald.

Servicemen, past and present, led the Anzac parade through Rimu Street. Photographer: Phil Benge.


From previous page

This busy little borough had many different communities. Some families farmed, ran small businesses or traded, and a growing number with fathers commuted to Wellington by ferry.

Boarding houses catered for summer visitors, and groups of young men nicknamed ‘Bach Boys’ rented baches where they enjoyed the sports grounds and beaches in the daytime and loud singsongs at night much to the distress of their neighbours.

One of the biggest problems the Borough faced at the time 100 years ago was one of the four legged variety. Not wandering dogs but instead roaming livestock. At a borough meeting in June 1914 - Mayor WJ Organ tabled that that very day ‘flowers had been trampled by a horse’.

A deputation of Horse-owners claimed the problem was not caused by them but instead by a ‘spirit of vandalism in the district’ with the so called ‘Young Bloods’ or ‘Bach Boys’ coming off the late ferry from town and deliberately opening gates.

Days Bay was declining as a weekend resort but land was being snapped up for housing. Croydon School; or as we know it today; Wellesley College), was taking on boarders.

O r g a n i s e d a c t i v i t i e s c a t e r e d f o r j u s t a b o u t e v e r y b o d y . Three churches had been built, offering children and youth activities as well as worship. Fundraising events provided entertainment, as did the Eastbourne Amateur Dramatic Society and the Savage Club.

We know there was a scout group in Eastbourne in 1910 as that year, a young 13 year old scout named Dominic Tesoriero is reported to have dived into the wharf and rescued Ivan Durloo; son of the Captain of the Cobar; who fell out of a fishing boat some 15 yards from the wharf. Young Ivan had gone under for the third time when he was spotted by Dominic who dived in fully clothed to rescue him. He was rewarded at the time with a gold watch and a silver medal from his local Patrol to acknowledge his bravery.

Local children were taught to swim in the harbour. There was no swimming pool back then.

Dances were held on Saturday nights on the top floor of the wood and coal depot in Oroua Street. Those going home at night walked by the light of the moon or the kerosene lamps at street corners that were lit every evening at dusk by local lamp lighter Pio Perno.

Muritai Tennis Club had its own courts and the Bowling Club used Mr Shortt’s green at the back of his house.

One popular activity was shooting. The Eastbourne Rifle Club began meeting in Gollans Valley but when Dr Mackenzie offered them some hillside land behind his house and soon the weekends echoed to the crack of rifle fire.

Rifle Clubs were encouraged by the Government, which saw them as useful training grounds for men who were not in the Territorials. Conscription didn’t begin in NZ until 1916. Eastbourne did have its own Territorial unit, which went into camp each year and drilled monthly at a local hall.

So perhaps it was not surprising that as the war clouds gathered, in the coming months, a

Eastbourne Village as it stood during the First World War. Note the school house at the bottom left, with it’s small playground, and the lack of shops on the southern side of Rimu Street, where the newly planted Norfolk Pines can be seen.

100 years ago, the eastern bays community like the rest of New Zealand was ready to send its best and bravest.

Ten locals had already seen service in the Boer War.

Some of these were among the thirty men, both residents and weekenders, who left for the Pacific less than two weeks after war was declared in August 1914.

Twenty more were on their way in the Main Body to the Middle East a couple of months later.

At least thirty landed on the beaches at Gallipoli and five of them died there.

About two hundred men and a handful of women from the Bays went to war in the next five years. Not all their names are on our Roll of Honour.

They left a community they worked hard to maintain and gave financially to support. Many local sports clubs and societies stopped meeting and the local volunteer fire brigade lost nearly all of its members who departed for the war.

These organisations and Eastbourne as a whole struggled with their grief for the 36 of their own who never came back, and the damaged ones who did.

Remembering the past


By Jessy Edwards

A l e x a n d r a R e u h m a n w a s awarded the main Eastbourne Bays’ Community Trust scholarship of $4000.

M s R e u h m a n grew up in Days Bay and attended San Antonio school before going on to high school and later studying international relations and modern languages at Victoria University.

I n O c t o b e r 2013 Ms Reuhman won a scholarship to Washington DC for a Congressional Internship, where she is currently based.

Twenty-three-year-old Alexandra Flaus was awarded $1000.

Ms Flaus graduated with first class honours in biochemistry at Otago University and is due to graduate with first class honours in law.

She says being awarded the scholarship was a privilege.

“I was extremely pleased,” she says.Ms Flaus is currently completing her final

law papers at the University of Amsterdam,

High achiever gains scholarships

Alexandra Reuhman.

before moving to The Hague to do a voluntary internship at the International Criminal Court.

She’s grateful for the scholarship, especially considering her internship is self-funded.

“I couldn’t have done it without this scholarship,” she says.

The Eastbourne Freemasons’ Scholarship is awarded annually to encourage further education for applicants who have lived in Eastbourne for at least five years, and who have achieved distinction in their chosen field.

Hutt City Council has a responsibility to its citizens to act now over climate change, the Eastbourne Community Board says.

The board say they find it “extraordinary” that the only mention of climate change in council’s Annual Plan is for a stormwater project proposed to start in 2026.

“Since there is nothing allocated for planning for such a project before this date we can only assume council does not see the need to give consideration to climate change for another 16 years.”

“Lower Hutt, with its coast, river and low

ECB astonished at omissionlying areas will be particularly vulnerable to any rises in sea level and to the increased extreme weather expected to occur in the future,” the board says. “We have already seen the damage caused by the storms in the last year.”

The board says council should be starting now to develop infrastructure that will be needed to protect the city in the future.

They say consideration of all developments should take into account the likely effects of rising seas and action needs to be taken to reduce the city’s carbon footprint through the way the city is developed and transport systems.


PARKSIDE

Many people from Eastbourne actively supported the campaign in 2010 to have Baring Head added to the East Harbour Regional Park, and as Park Ranger I’m really pleased to be working with you to make the expanded park a great place to visit. It’s a goal shared by the Friends of Baring Head and its volunteers which have worked tirelessly to increase community involvement in the park and help source the funding we need for its maintenance and development.

The results of their endeavours are there to be seen by all. There’s a new car park down by the beach, a toilet installed at the bridge car park, picnic tables and seating sited around a signposted track and the historic pump house by the river is sporting a new paint job, door and roof. As well as assisting with several of these projects, the Friends have been involved with protecting banded dotterel colonies on the beach, beach clean-ups, planting, weeding, small mammal monitoring and pest trapping. Over recent months, we have been talking to the Friends about other longer term projects at Baring Head to protect and enhance its many values and to make it even more enjoyable for

visitors. These have included the development and implementation of an interpretation strategy, the restoration and future management of the lighthouse complex and the implementation of a 10 year biodiversity action plan.

The Friends’ contribution has been outstanding and its flow on will be a better environment, more to see and do and ultimately greater use of the park.

If you haven’t visited Baring Head recently, then take a drive over the Hill and down the beautiful Wainuiomata Valley and go for a walk over this spectacular headland.

If you want to know more, or would like to be involved as a volunteer, then contact Colin

Local Eastbourne resident Joy Baird helping to plant natives around Khyber Pass, along with Graham Wolf from Lower Hutt.

Ryder of the Friends on 478 4391 or at [email protected] or Joy Baird at [email protected] .

- EHRP ranger Mark McAlpine

Th e Ministry of FlowersJutta Chisholm

[email protected] (04)5627019 / 021460059

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LETTERSMayor, councillors need to be more courageous

As a market researcher and living in Eastbourne, I cannot help but talk to a lot of people.

Lately I have been talking to people in an informal manner about their views on amalgamation in the Wellington region. It seems that a lot of Eastbournites view this quite positively.

Many remember how they didn’t like the prospect back in 1989 of being merged with Lower Hutt along with Petone and Wainuiomata.

Losing our unique identity and being swallowed up by Lower Hutt were some of the fears expressed then. Well, it didn’t happen. We are still the Eastbourne it was and being part of a larger community and funding base had its advantages.

Apparently, the amalgamation in Auckland has been an all-round success. Influential people like Sir Bob Harvey, Mayor of Waitakere City at the time of amalgamation, was to lose his job if

amalgamation was to become reality. He was a vocal critic of amalgamation

and, very much like our Mayor Ray Wallace, was protecting his patch. Sir Bob has recently conceded that amalgamation in Auckland was a huge success, not only for Waitakere, but also for greater Auckland.

A recent report prepared for Auckland Council has calculated that financial savings have been achieved of $131 million as a result of amalgamation.

I believe that Mayor Wallace and his councillors should be more courageous and, for the better of Hutt Valley and its communities, look beyond protecting their own interests. The Hutt Valley has stagnated on all fronts in the last couple of decades.

One only has to look at the number of businesses, particularly in the manufacturing sector, that have packed up and relocated to other centres, losing thousands of jobs in the process.

We deserve better and there is ample

evidence that amalgamation will give us a fighting chance by pooling our resources and thinking strategically as a region.

Plus, if the Local Government Commission opts for a system that uses Local Boards (as opposed to the less powerful community boards), Hutt Valley people will directly control local issues that matter to us, leaving large regional issues to the main council.

The latter will have Hutt Valley people elected to it.

So, the argument from the Mayor that we will lose our democracy under amalgamation is completely overstated.

For more information about amalgamation in the greater Wellington area, visit www.betterhuttvalley.org.nz

Theo MullerEastbourne resident, employer in Hutt

Valley and member Better Hutt Valley


TAI CHI

FELDENKRAIS METHOD® Wednesdays

7.30pm St Ronan’s

Wednesdays9.15am Muritai Yacht Club

6.15pm St Ronan’s

NEW TERM STARTS21 MAY

ALL WELCOMEBeverley Barclay MNZFG562 0965 021 293 [email protected]

Wireless communications to aid Bays’ civil defenceFor the past 23 years Brian Heath has headed

a group of local civil defence radio operators who are on standby in case of emergency.

One of the major difficulties in the aftermath of a disaster such as an earthquake is that communities can be cut-off from the rest of their region. With the geography of the bays, just moving from one bay to the next could be difficult.

Wireless radios set up in each of the bays will enable the community to stay in touch with each other, let people know where help is needed and direct resources to where they are needed.

Directly after the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch a team of amateur radio operators kept lines of communication open between civil defence workers, rescue teams and welfare centres.

Brian operates the radio at the civil defence headquarters, a secret location in Eastbourne, although in an emergency whoever makes it to the radio room first will effectively be in charge.

The whereabouts of the headquarters is not publicised as the people working there will need to be undisturbed to concentrate on what they are doing and have no resources to help anyone turning up at the door, Brian says.

There are another eight wireless radios scattered throughout the bays, each with one or two trained operators.

Wellesley College and Muritai School have fixed radios. The others are “suitcase radios”, stored in operators’ houses and easily transported if needed. The suitcase radios have leads that attach to car batteries to power them.

Brian runs tests with the operator team one Saturday per month.

“It varies on when people are available. For an average turn out we get about 80 percent of operators … if I get 80 percent in a real emergency I’d be rapt.”

As people are often out of the bays at work or on holiday, and as disaster can strike on any day at any time, it is quite possible that many of the operators will not be near the radios.

Recently Brian trained the Eastbourne Community Board members to be radio controllers, but there are still more operators

needed, he says.Brian reckons it takes only takes around

an hour to train someone to use the radios and then an operator would just need to take part in monthly tests.

“It’s not difficult to learn,” he says.Himself a Civil Defence street-warden in the

1980s until 1991 when he took over the radio operation, Brian says neighbourhood support needs to be revived as it replaces the old street warden system. “Basically they are the key to civil defence,” he says.

A neighbourhood support group would identify if anyone frail, disabled or needing special medication lived in their group and whether anyone had resources that could be used to assist.

“A little unit, they can look after themselves for three or four days,” he says. “If someone has a problem they can’t solve they can go to Civil Defence.”

If the nearest Civil Defence person can’t solve the problem they would radio the Eastbourne headquarters, if they couldn’t help they would

radio Lower Hutt and so on.- Anyone interested in being trained to use

the wireless radio can contact Ms Horrocks at [email protected]

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Brian Heath demonstrates the civil defence radio to ECB members Gilane Khalil and Murray Gibbons


SPORTNews at the Bay

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HCC WALKABOUT this is an informalmeeting with Councilors from HCC hereat Days Bay where we can discuss newideas, issues needing attention etc. e.g.

RAFT - this needs replacing , our committee is looking at new designs and prices.BASKETBALL HOOP - for teenagers to use, this is under discussion.PARK MAP - at the entrance will be a sign showing where facilities are.RAMP TO PAVILION - the camber of the slope is too diffi cult especially when wet. There has been an accident whereby a person fell and broke a vertebra. This is urgent.Duck Pond cleaning and perhaps trees above trimmed to prevent shags polluting.

DAYS BAY AGM & DINNER -Cobar Tues 12 August.Last year was a sellout, so back by popular demand we will have a beautiful dinner, great guest speaker, tea/coffee, Ryan Tattersall with a cooking demonstration.Mark your calendar!! We will keep you posted.

RegardsDiane CheyneChairperson

Footballers face tough gameby Steve McMorran

Eastbourne senior football teams are slowly settling into a new season, finding their feet with new personnel and changing conditions and trying to emulate the successes of their junior clubmates.

The Eastbourne senior team came up against the Victoria University Stallions, the dominant team in its grade, last Saturday while it was still in that settling-down process and suffered a 7-0 defeat, while playing with more elan than the scoreline suggested.

That followed a 4-0 home loss to Wellington Olympic which came after Eastbourne made a strong start to the season with a 4-2 win over Marist.

Eastbourne is still in eighth place in the grade at an early stage of the season but with a match in hand and just a single win outside the top-six.

The Eastbourne Masters have dropped to the bottom of Capital Masters Division Two after five matches but the long-standing team and its enthusiastic members are used to difficult beginnings and will almost certainly improve as

the season progresses. Consistent player numbers and combinations

are often a problem early in the winter season.The Masters most recently lost 6-0 to the

second-placed Lower Hutt City Longballs. They were much more competitive in losing

3-1, on late goals, to Island Bay United, 3-0 to North Wellington and 2-0 to Waterside Karori.

The 14th grade Mariners, which combines junior players from Eastbourne, Stop Out and Petone, are currently ninth in the strong Junior Premier League with one win and four losses after five games.

The combined team naturally is taking time to ease into its season as players from those three clubs get to know each other and to form into a unified combination.

But their form so far has been good, including a 9-2 win over Western Suburbs, and though they are ninth overall in a 10-team league they haven’t been outclassed by any opponent.

Last month the Eastbourne 10th Grade Travel League team played in the Kapiti Coast United Tournament and the club is particularly proud of their efforts. Eastbourne beat Petone, Lower Hutt and Karori and drew with Wests and Waikanae.

Their only loss was to the eventual winners Onslow by 1-0, leaving the team in a meritorious fifth place out of the 12 best teams in the Wellington region.

Manager John Makowem said it was an amazing effort from the team and their coach Bob Medcalf.


SPORT

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Eastbourne supporters lift rugby team to victory

by Steve McMorran

A courageous win on Old Timer’s Day has set a new benchmark for the Eastbourne senior rugby team and may have turned around a season which coach Greg Halford said was running hot and cold until players felt the weight of their local support.

After recent losses to Marist-St Pats Reds, by 22-10, and Old Boys-University Spartans, by 35-7, Eastbourne›s season had begun to sag but they were cheered on by a massive home crowd at HW Shortt on Saturday and responded by eking out a gutsy two-point win.

Halford said his young players had been inspired by the manifestation of community support and the recognition of the heritage that their jersey represents, that they are only the latest generation to wear colours that many have worn proudly by many before them.

He hopes that the form his players produced in winning on Saturday will now become a standard on which they can build as the season progresses.

“We’d been running hot and cold until Saturday, to be honest,” Halford said.

“But we had a fantastic game on Old Timers› Day and hopefully we can grow from there and get better and better.

“It was a really good game of rugby and we just scraped home by two points. But I’m really thrilled with the courage we showed. We still have a couple of key guys out but the new guys stepped up and set a new standard which we now have to maintain.

“The best thing about it for me was the sheer guts the guys showed. They wanted to win for the old timers and they refused to give up. We didn’t hit the front until the last 10 minutes but the boys just kept fighting and fighting until

they got there.”Halford is reluctant to single out players for

particular praise and is delighted with the way a relatively new group is coming together as a team.

“It was team effort on Saturday and that’s something I’m very proud of,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to name too many individuals because whatever we do, we do as a team.

“But Rod Plimmer has been great again, Dan Hewson is always very strong all around the field and Liam Sullivan is very good from the back.

“We have a couple of new guys who are still learning but our forwards are playing very good rugby at the moment. That’s very pleasing.

“I think the biggest thing was just the massive crowd on Saturday. It was a real eye-opener for a lot of the guys.

“It made them realise what it means to play for Eastbourne and just how much support they have behind them.”

Phil Benge captured this try from Jake Murphy against ? on Old Timers’ Day last Saturday.


SPORTYoung Eastbourne fencer triumphs

by Steve McMorranWhen Isaac Rusholme-Cobb decided at the

age of eight to take a stab at a different sport he literally took a stab at it.

Rusholme-Cobb, 14, took up the sport of fencing - an ancient and venerable martial art but an arcane pastime to many New Zealanders - and he has pursued it right up to national and international level.

The pun about taking a stab at fencing is a tired one, perhaps as old as the sport itself, but in the case of Rusholme-Cobb it describes to some extent his motivation in pursuing a sport which is at some distance from the mainstream.

“Personally, my involvement with fencing began when my mother one day took me to a training session,” he said. “I enjoyed it, I came back and I’ve kept coming back ever since.

“I suppose the appeal as an eight-year old was in being able to use a sword and to stab somebody but in a way which does no harm.”

Rusholme-Cobb trains three times a week at the Campbell Terrace-based club on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at the Hutt Valley Fencing Club under coach Robert Gastaldo-Brac and in the company of several schoolmates who form a small clique of fencing enthusiasts at Hutt International Boys' School.

At present, he competes in both epee and foil - two of the three disciplines which comprise the sport of fencing. At the recent national championships, Rusholme-Cobb won the New Zealand boy's under-15 epee title and was third in the men's under-17 foil. He was also named NZ's top-ranked U15 fencer in foil and epee

He now awaits the selection of the New Zealand team which will compete at the

Australian national age-group championships i n Ju l y and ha s a reasonable expectation of selection, as a current national champion and hav ing repre sented New Zealand at the championships last year.

He finished just outside the top ten in the foil at last year’s championships and in the top 18 in the epee, the discipline he has more recently adopted.

S o m e c o a c h e s discourage their charges from competing at both epee and foil because of the slight but significant differences in the technical aspects of each discipline. But Rusholme-Cobb feels confident and comfortable at present of being able to compete in both.

“It is possible,” he said. “Some coaches believe it’s best to choose one and concentrate on that.

“I feel I’m not at the point yet where I have to choose between the two. I feel able to do both.

“Foil is a lot more restricted in terms of pointscoring than epee because you can only score with a hit to the main body. With epee you can hit anything and if both fencers score a hit and both lights go on simultaneously, both take a point which is not the case in foil."

The under-15 age group is the earliest at

which fencers compete nationally and they then move on through the under-17 and under-20 grades to senior, open competition.

Rusholme-Cobb can continue to compete in the under-15 age group for the remainder of this year but has already made his mark nationally at under-17 level. He expects to continue in fencing for some time to come.

“I should hopefully continue on through high school and in the university stages," he said.

"I'm not sure about what may happen after that. I will probably still compete but possibly not at international level."

The Hutt Valley Fencing Club has regular, free 'have a go' sessions. For more information contact [email protected]

Isaac Rusholme-Cobb in action, right.


SPORT

Kidztalk News from our local playcentres

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There has been a lot of play at Days Bay Playcentre inspired by the changing season and the cooler weather. here has been a lot of play eason and the cooler weather. our four year olds has initiated a project to collect 100 milk bottles to make an igloo in preparation for winter! One of our four year make an igloo in preparation for winter!

from the garden has been turned into warming apple pies and dehydrated apple pieces for storing awFruit from th een turn ated apple pieces for storing away. There have also been some very happy preschoolers spending time jumping and lying down in piles of crunchy leaves. There also been some very happy g and lying down in piles of crunchy leav Today one toddler said with an air of infi nite wisdom, when mum pointed out a leaf fl oating down, “that’s right e toddler said with an air of infi nite wisdom, when mum pointed ut a leaf fl oating down, “that’s right mummy, the leaves are falling off the trees on a winter morning”. y, the leaves are falling off the trees oThese autumn leaf experiences have lead to other activities including leaf collecting, leaf rubbings, and collage pictures.e autumn leaf experiences have lead to other activities including leaf ng, leaf rubbings, and collage pictures

Despite the cooler weather the children have been as busy climbing and swinging as ever, just with a few extra layers. e cooler weather the children have been as busy climbing aThere has also been many opportunities for wearing in new pairs of little gumboots with lots of puddle splashing and been many opportunities for wearing in new pairs of general mud larking.mud larking.

Last week we also had a successful trip to a stage play in Wellington, ‘Mr McGee and the Biting Flea’, which the children k we also had a successful trip to a stage play in Wellington , which the childrenloved. Pamela Allen is a favourite author with our children and we have been enjoying many of her other wonderfully musical urite author with our children and we have b wonderfand rhythmical stories back at the cenhe centre.

PETONE

INFORMATIONWe run playcentre sessions for 0-6 year olds on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9.15 - 11.45am.If you would like to fi nd out more about Days Bay Playcentre or you would like to organise a visit please contact our in-formation person, Gabrielle Edmonds, on 021 250 2688. For information about after school arts courses for primary aged children run at our centre email: [email protected]

Children busy with school patrol play with their own colourful peadestrian crossing and stop/go signs.

Successful year celebrated at prizegivingA hugely successful season

for the Muritai Tennis Club has had its obvious outcome in the array of glittering prizes awarded the members in recent weeks.

The Muritai midweek l ad i e s in t e rc lub t e am› s domination of its Hutt Valley competition was reflected in the silverware collected by its players at the tournament prizegiving at Mitchell Park on May 7.

The team of Cilla Heymer (captain), Amy Fanning, Hayley Roche, Gretchen Campbel l and Margaret Connolly won the A-Grade post–Christmas competition, losing only losing one match and that on count back by just one game. They previously had won the B-Grade before Christmas losing only one set and with an additional contribution from Sandy Green.

Margaret Connolly won the cup as highest aggregate player for summer midweek tennis with Amy Fanning named runner-up, and the team also won the cup for the club with the best aggregate in the competition.

Muritai recognised its own champions at the season closing and prizegiving day on April 27.

The senior club champions were: Women’s singles: Jude Notman. Men’s singles: Bruce Connolly. Women’s doubles: Cilla Heymer and Margaret Connolly. Men’s doubles: Bruce

Connolly and Vincent Kerr. Mixed doubles: Bruce Connolly and Jude Notman. Women’s plate: Lisa Smellie.

Special awards went to: Most Outstanding Club Member: Wendy Manson. Junior Interclub Team of the Year: Muritai Williams, for winning the very competitive HVT junior interclub Girls Premier A 2013/14 post-Christmas competition. The team comprised Ashleigh Grenfell, 17, Franziska Plimmer, 18, Olivia Bloomfield, 17, and Ella Grenfell, 16. Most Outstanding Interclub Team: Muritai midweek ladies. The Senior Sunday League was won by Tilley’s Terrors (John Ansell, John Davidson, Andrew Tilly and Jac Henderson).

At the Hutt Valley Tennis junior prizegiving

on May 4 winners and runners-up in pre and post-Christmas competitions were presented with their certificates:

Pre-Christmas competition results: Muritai Sharks - Boys Division 1: runners-up. Muritai Aces - Boys Division 2: runners-up.

Post-Christmas Competition Results: Muritai Smash Hits - Boys Division 3: winners. Muritai Williams - Girls Premier A: winners. Muritai Falcons - Girls Division 2: winners. Muritai Tuis - Girls Division 2: runners-up.

Muritai held its annual match against Kilbirnie on Sunday, May 4, providing a fun but competitive tournament for club members of all levels and all ages. But Muritai was unable to win back the trophy with Kilbirnie winning 18-14.

Cilla Heymer and Margaret Connolly took out the cup for Women’s doubles, while Bruce Connolly and Vincent Kerr won the cup for Men’s doubles.


SPORT

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News from Point Howard

There was a big response to our request for opinions about the speed limit on Seaview Road with more than 80% favouring keeping it at 70kph. We repre-sented that view at the Petone Community Board meeting on 12 May but the board members saw it differently voting 4:3 to change the limit to 50kph. Assuming the full council accepts that decision, the new speed limit will come into effect in early August and will apply from the Seaview roundabout to a point which is 150 metres south of Gracefi eld Road, so just before the cattery. From there to Pt Howard, the limit will remain at 70kph. Most of you will be disappointed with this decision and we will all have learn to drive more slowly along Seaview Road even when, as is often the case, there is not another vehicle in sight.

The work at the bottom of Howard Road is nearing completion and should be back to normal by the end of this month.

Keep warm.

Yachties look at selling clubroomsBy Steve McMorran Members of the Lowry Bay Yacht Club have

been asked to consider a proposal under which the club would sell its clubrooms to Seaview Marina Limited for use as a cafe, then lease it back at a nominal rent as a means of ensuring the club’s financial sustainability.

The club’s executive presented the proposal to members last month and are now consulting with the membership - answering questions and considering feedback - to see if such a measure has support.

Under the proposal, the clubrooms would be sold to SML at no cost, then leased back by the LBYC for 24 years at a peppercorn rental.

SML would install a cafe at the eastern end of the clubrooms, which occupy a prominent place at the marina, while the yacht club would retain use of the clubrooms’ Seaview Room and bar.

The marina company would upgrade the clubrooms at its expense and refit the premises for dual use. It would also assume responsibility for all building-related costs, including insurance and rates, saving the club around $14,000 per year not counting maintenance costs.

That saving would be offset by the resulting loss of income to the club from the hire of the clubrooms for private functions.

Members were told SML would consider relocating the clubrooms and was hoping to move on the project by the end of the year.

The executive recognised members’ emotional attachment to the clubrooms. They said past and current members were responsible

for building the facility, which comprises a substantial building and deck, and it is “an important focal point for our social and on-water lives. It embodies our proud history, and our members› efforts”.

Members were told the club owns the building but leases the land from SML for 24-years with no certain right of renewal and on terms which can limit what the club does with the premises. The executive said the clubhouse is under-used and had significant fixed annual costs of around $25,000 for items such as insurance, rates, rental, cleaning and power. Those fixed costs were likely to increase as insurance had done, by almost 100 percent over two years.

The clubrooms needed extensive maintenance which had been put off for too long and members, who volunteered their labour, could not be expected to keep up with the volume of work required.

The executive said the club was “in a difficult financial position and is not financially sustainable”.

“It has a fixed but ageing membership and, while recent losses had been stopped, faced a forecast of flat to declining financial reserves. Years of effort to increase income had met with little success as membership was not increasing and there was little tolerance for measures such as increasing subscriptions.

The executive said SML had been considering for some years a way of opening a cafe at the marina but various options had come to nothing.

It said the executive supported exploring SML’s proposal further but had made no commitments and would not do so without the assent of club members.

“Our interest is to become financially sustainable but retain a good club facility for members,” it said.


CLASSIFIEDSEastbourne Buses: Any pre-1990 Eastbourne

Bus timetables, photos, or memorabilia please. Ph Markus 476 9990.

Cash for scrap - Copper, Brass, Aluminium, Stainless, Cars, Whiteware, Steel. Ingot Metals, 2 Port Road, Seaview. Ph 568 8300.

Window Cleaning residential and commercial phone Graeme 5692247 or txt 027 2509847

YOGA St Ronan’s Church Hall, Eastbourne every Wednesday 6.30-8pm $15 casual or $135 for 10 class. All levels welcome. Email [email protected]

Wanted to Buy: Old nautical charts of Cook Strait and/or Wellington Harbour. Call Dave on 021 471 992.

Guthrie Cottage - beautiful self-contained beach-front accommodation. Perfect for excess visitors or enjoy all of the comforts of home while you renovate. www.guthriecottage.co.nz Lynne 562 8889.

Local Tree Works: Tree trimming, tree removal. Phone Steven 027 666 6279 or 562 6031.

YOGA Qualified Yoga teacher. Available for private sessions, yoga therapy or small groups. Email [email protected] or call 021 800 512

Wartime photographs, letters and memorabilia of and by people with close links to the Eastern Bays are wanted for Eastbourne in War project. All care taken and prompt return. Contact Julia Stuart 04 5626067, [email protected]

Dressmaking & Alterations. Janette 562-8276

POWER YOGA Muritai Yacht Club, Eastbourne every Thursday. Starting 5 June. 6.30pm-7.45pm $15 casual or $135 for 10 class. Email [email protected]

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: 40c per word. Please put copy/money in Eastbourne Herald letterbox in Eastbourne Library foyer.

St Alban’s Anglican:11 Ngaio St, EastbourneRev. Dr. Eleanor Sanderson, tel: 562 6076Thursday: 10am, Sunday: 8am, 9.30amSunday School: 9.30amSt Ronan’s Presbyterian:Muritai Rd, Eastbourne tel: Parish Clerk 562 8753Sunday Morning Worship: 9.30amPower Hour: 9.30amSan Antonio Roman Catholic:Oroua St, Eastbourne tel: Sharon Penny (06) 379 8279Saturday Vigil Mass: 5.30pmSunday (Sacred Heart, Petone): 9.30am & 5.30pm

Church ServicesIn Eastbourne

JUNE EASTBOURNE HERALD DEADLINESAD BOOKING: Wed, June 11

DELIVERIES: June 21

Scott Makin married Sonny Southon 12 April 2014.

Th ank you to all our family and friends for their love

and support.

NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the Eastbourne-Bays Community Trust

will be held at the Eastbourne Service CentreThursday 26 June 2014

at 7.30pmPlease refer to the following web site for

information on the Trust:www.eastbourne-bays-community-trust.org.nz

Contact: George Tuffi n Tel:562 7520

The Historical Societyof Eastbourne Inc.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

St Ronan’s Church HallTuesday 17th June

at 7.30pm

All Welcome

Speaker will be Ruth Lightbourne, Turnbull Library, followed by Supper

(INCORPORATED)

To receive the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30th April 2014.

To elect members to the Board.

To appoint the Auditor for the financial year ending 30th April 2015.

To attend to General Business.

1.

2.3.

4.

AGM

Signed: Mike Anderson, Chair


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SPORTWebcam to help EB become a windsurfing mecca

by Emily Tilley

Eastbourne is the ideal location for a windsurfing base, a facility lacking in Wellington despite its renown as the Windy City, local Bruce Spedding says.

Mr Spedding, a member of the Wellington Windsurfing Association and president of Windsurfing New Zealand, says Eastbourne is a fantastic place for windsurfing, “it’s one of the reasons I live here”.

The point by the Eastbourne Sports and Services Club sticks out into the wind and is an “exciting venue” as it catches both the northerlies and southerlies, he said.

“There’s not many other places like that in Wellington.”

Mr Spedding spoke to the Eastbourne Community Board about his ideas to create a windsurfing base at their meeting this month when they approved his application for a grant of $1,113 to buy a webcam and anemometer.

Mr Spedding told the board a lot of people already come from quite far away to Eastbourne to windsurf.

By setting up a webcam and weather station in Robinson Bay to live stream video and weather data, people would be able to check out the

conditions online and more easily make the decision to travel to the bays.

It would also raise awareness of the location as a windsurfing destination, he said. Local businesses, bed and breakfasts and community groups could add the feeds to their websites.

Mr Spedding sees a huge potential to establish Eastbourne as “the home for windsurfing” in Wellington.

Where people windsurf tends to be fragmented as locations are chosen on the wind speed and direction on the day and there are different types of windsurfing and different levels, he said.

However, wind is almost guaranteed on any day in Robinson Bay. As a place to create a base for the sport, he contends that no other location in the region can offer the same potential.

Creating a place from which the sport could operate from would “take the sport to a different level,” he said.

Equipment could be stored at the base opening up the sport to people with no vehicle and in particular making the sport much more accessible to young people, he said. It would also mean events could be held at a moments notice.

Mr Spedding said there is storage space in the community centre that would be fantastic for

keeping racing equipment and learning boards. Currently the storage is used by the Lions

Club but they are comfortable with the idea of it being used for windsurfing as long as an appropriate alternative can be found for the club, he said. He has spoken to Hutt City Council about finding another storage space.

Mr Spedding has also spoken to the Eastbourne Sports and Services Club about windsurfing becoming involved. At the moment the club is land based, but with windsurfing it would be able to have activities related to clubs on both sides of the building, he said.

Windsurfers can be quite different from other sportspeople and could add a different dimension to the club, he said.

Eastbourne Herald May 2014

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Transcript of Eastbourne Herald May 2014