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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

 

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Letters to the Editor

 

An open letter reply to Kaipara commissioners chairperson John Robertson:
Your open letter published in the Mangawhai Focus requires the right of reply. I am not a member of the Mangawhai Ratepayers & Residents Association (MRRA). Both you and Mr Winder acted as follows:

(A) Sponsored the Retrospective Validation Bill Kaipara District Council and Other Matters through parliament December 2013

(B) Applied to the High Court to strike out the application by the MRRA for a High Court Judicial Review of the illegal activities by the KDC at a cost of $175000.

Retrospective laws are the most scurrilous laws any democracy enacts. The Retrospective Validation Bill Kaipara District Council and Other Matters was supported by Mr Sabin, Ms Maggie Barry, Ms Nicky Wagener and other politicians.

Justice Heath has made the following statement: “It is democratically obscene that a community feels forced to take legal action against its local council.”

Justice Heath in his judgement confirmed what the community new – that the actions of the KDC councillors advisers and others were illegal during the period 2003 until 2012.

It is a democratically bankrupt action to ram through parliament a retrospective validation law. The parties who should bepursued in this matter are former KDC chief executive Jack McKerchar, Beca Carter advisers to the KDC for unilaterally appointing themselves as primary contractor re the EcoCare Project at an annual fee of $675,000, and Bell Gully for advice that was contrary to the Local Government Act.

Now to turn to the failure of Audit NZ Ltd, the contractor to the Office of The Auditor General who signed off the Audit of the KDC and signed off the KDC as a going concern 2005 to 2012. Compensation of $31m should bepursued (there are many precedents in law for this failure).

GJ Smith
Kaipara ratepayer



Water rates ‘extortion’
Maungaturoto’s rate-payers have paid out ap-proximately $800,000 in water rates in two years. The dairy company must have contributed on top of this for their filtered water as well. It is any-body’s guess how much.

We are expected to pay 15% more next year, a charge well ahead of inflation or interest rates, so this should extract another $500,000 at least, a tidy sum collected for which we have seen little maintenance or upgrading going around this town.

How many more years will this extortion go on? How much will the upgrade of water infrastructure cost? As this is the reason we were given for the hefty increase in charges. Could we not have some transparency? We suspect that this money is being syphoned off to service the debt.

Dargaville is also staggering under the same increases in charges. Can we not have some open discussion about these costs also?

Why the need to charge the full annual charge on a 6-monthly bill? What a Christmas present!

Brian Dent
Grey Power




Maungaturoto Museum promotes birds
Without depreciating the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society’s efforts in replanting the sand dune, there is far more to the business in restoring the sand dunes and associated avian life than just planting pingao and spinifex.

Rabbits love spinifex and it follows the more pingao and spinifex there is the more the rabbit population grows. Ferrets love rabbits and they too grow in numbers and wild and domestic cats find the whole scene a very happy hunting ground. An increase in bird population can also result in an increase in the cat population, so keep your pet moggies at home.

Without regular trapping of all these mammalian predators the NZ fairy tern and other endangered species could simply vanish from the sandspit.

In recent years the wind breaks have worked wonders in holding sand in place and nothing eats them.

The sandspit plays host to at least six other notable species including the migratory godwits from the Far East and Alaska and two other varieties of terns, the Caspian tern and small or white fronted tern. If you want to check them out without getting your feet wet or sand in your boots visit the new Mangawhai Museum and see the new display of birds.

The new bird display at the museum now promotes the rare sea birds internationally and there will be growing interest in this avian wonderland. A time may come when some professional bird watch hides have to be built at key places to allow a growing public the chance to see them alive without trampling on nesting areas.

Roy Vaughan Mangawhai



Dear John Robertson…
The problem is that also the new extension of the Mangawhai Wastewater Scheme (MWWS) is again without consultation of the community.
Very poorly managed subdivisions create another truckload of debt that in a couple of years will need another huge investment.

Don’t lead us from democracy to ‘debtocracy’!

To divide the people into your supporters and your enemies is not the right way to find serious solutions.

Please, don’t ignore our suggestions for the MWWS. When do we get answers to our questions from the MWWS Advisory Panel?

Don’t forget our basic democratic rights. The residents of the community need the opportunity to have their say.

Christian Simon
Mangawhai

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