h-member-login

MANGAWHAI'S NO.1 NEWSPAPER  header call 
Melody sales@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 021454814
Nadia n.lewis@xtra.co.nz 021677978
Reporting: Julia news@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 0274641673
 Accounts: Richard info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz 021678358

 

Archives

Letters to the Editor

Appeal by developer
I would like your readers to know that Jonathan Larsen has appealed the commissioner’s decision to turn down his application for five houses on the ridgeline of his Brynderwyn block. 
But the developer isn’t happy with the generously granted 13 blocks and is again going to the Environment Court at the expense of the ratepayer. 
Several groups, including the MRRA and the Friends of the Brynderwyn’s have filed an appeal because we know that our members don’t want to see the upper ridges of our beautiful green Mangawhai backdrop littered with houses. This area is classified as an Outstanding Landscape and not suitable for housing developments. 
 
Martina Tschirky
Mangawhai
 
 
Give a dog a bone…
Bow Wow! Perhaps our last letter to the editor may have hit a sore bone! No doubt the defaced ‘Keep your dog on a leash’ signs have provided much amusement. On the one hand, we found the ‘artistic’ tagger rather amusing. On the other hand, the defacing of council (public) property is surely a criminal offence. 
I would like to add to my last letter to the Focus. Often the Mangawhai Volunteer Fire Brigade tried to keep us on a leash. However much to their frustration it never worked. We believe that in any volunteer organization there should be people that are prepared to stand up and make sure that proper checks are always put in place and without the fear of being intimidated. After all, most of the money raised by the MVFB is through the generous donations and sponsorships given by the local people, businesses and visitors to the Mangawhai community. 
The Mangawhai Volunteer Fire Brigade is also a central government (NZFS) and locally based government (KDC) funded organization. Both central and local based governments publish sets of accounts annually. Other volunteer organisations based within Mangawhai also freely publish their annual accounts. Is it about time the Mangawhai Volunteer Fire Brigade published their accounts? 
Also we note that there has been several hard questions asked of the MVFB over the last few months, including questions asked via letters to the Focus. However, we note that there has been no response. 
Maybe it’s not the leashing of the dog that is the problem or nor is the ostrich with its head buried in the sand the problem. Maybe for the last few years, a tail of the MVFB has been wagging the dog.
 
Wayne Paget
Resigned DCFO (MVFB)
 
 
Still paying fees
I know some people are fed up reading about the sewage connections and rates but sorry folks, I'm about to throw in my tuppence worth.
When we retired and moved to Mangawhai in 2009 we knew absolutely nothing about all the mess that was going on. All we knew was that we were to pay $8475 for connecting to the sewage. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we needed to pay this when our house was built and we moved in.
Regarding the connection to the sewage in Mangawhai, we are led to believe the fee for connection was paid by the developers (an amount of $16,312.50 per section of which there is 104 sections) which we the residents would have paid indirectly when we bought our sections. If this is the case we should have not been billed for $8475 for connection fees which a number of residents have already paid in full. – before we get hit with an extra $20,000 which seems to be what is about to be suggested.
We were also being charged waste water charges when not connected to the system. A number of empty sections are still being charged for waste water.
The council had absolutely nothing to pay – the EcoCare piping and pumping station was all paid by the developers. 
So my question is what happened to all that money and why do we the residents still pay a connection fee?
 
G & M Galt
Mangawhai
 
 
Ratepayer vs Ratepayer
In January the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association (MRRA) held their AGM. Jonathan Larson and I unsuccessfully stood for election. The chair of the MRRA, prior to the meeting, e-mailed members recommending the above persons did not receive their vote. Mr Rogan now claims a clear mandate was received, however the number of votes received was never disclosed from the secret ballot held.
Martina Tschirky and Helen Curreen, both MRRA executive members, gave reports to the AGM regarding their activities. Ms Tschirky claimed they had kept the developer and council honest regarding his giving of a public walkway at the bottom of Molesworth Drive. This claim by her, to be generous, is fanciful. I met with Mr de Baugh, a builder, who tells me his resource consent application always showed his intent to give public access and Ms Tschirky, along with Ms Curreen, were on site post the application for consent, with a copy of the application, showing the intended esplanade strip. 
Ms Tschirky attempts to present herself as some sort of environmental hero when in fact she is simply being vexatious in her attacks on anyone she claims is a developer.
I have no objection to people having their own views, which I do not necessarily agree with, but I do wonder if the members of MRRA are aware that some of their executive are acting outside the associations mandate, when really these executive members are using the guise of MRRA to promote their own personal views.
I would have thought that a ratepayers organisation is just that. Yet we see a faction within this organisation who spends ratepayer funds opposing other ratepayers. In fact it was interesting to learn at the AGM that the association spent $2500 on that opposition, or half the annual membership fee income (500 members at $10 per annum).
The MRRA does not represent the ratepayers of Mangawhai and should cease purporting to do so. It currently represents a sizeable group within the urban drainage district, who are understandably concerned about the illegalities and costs relating to EcoCare. Apart from that it is mainly comprised of a small group of extremist NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) and BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) who already live in the sensitive coastal environment, on sm all holdings, and on top of hills, who want to stop others from enjoying the same. 
The association should surrender its misleading name and settle for something more fitting – perhaps Mangawhai Anti-Development And Sewage Society (MADASS).
 
Craig Jepson
Mangawhai
 
 
Call for resignations
Well, now we know what the content of the heralded Local Bill proposed by the commissioners of the Kaipara District Council contains.
This is a 30 page document of mumbo jumbo promoted by commissioners and endorsed by our local member of parliament Mike Sabin.
The document is a disgrace in law and content, and further, for a local MP to endorse this folly is a draconian pluralistic act of breathtaking deceit.
I have regularly written that there are alternatives available to the commissioners to consult with our community with a ‘Scheme of Arrangement’ – a legitimate legal process of discussion for all.
I say to the commissioners and Sabin: You have no credibility – resign.
 
Graham Mackenzie
Kaipara
 
ABOUT US
  CHECK IT OUT
The Mangawhai Focus is the only 'Mangawhai' community Newspaper and is the paper of choice within the local area.

For more information on distribution and circulation please 
click here
 

Directory

Archives

Contact Us


 

 

 

FOLLOW US

facebook   twitter   174855-378

CONTACT US


Sales: 021 454814
  sales@mangawhaifocus.co.nz
Editorial: 027 4641673
  news@mangawhaifocus.co.nz
Office: 021 678357
  info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz