West Harbour Recreation Trail —Devastation caused to Rotary project

The three-year $200,000 West Harbour Recreation Trail project by the Rotary Club of Dunedin aims to beautify the edges of a 3km section of the cycleway-walkway, from the Otago Boat Harbour to Maia.

On May 26, a Friday afternoon, two Rotarians turned up at the boat harbour end of the Trail to set out the location of new exercise equipment for public use (in preparation for a June 10 working bee) – the next phase of the harbourside project. The men were astounded to find a council contractor, ostensibly there to repair the harbour wall, running heavy machinery across the mown green strip, seriously damaging the designated public amenity area.

While Rotary’s West Harbour Recreation Trail is a council approved project, and the extended site receives maintenance from Taskforce Green, the DCC had completely failed to advise and coordinate with Rotary before earthworks commenced for repair of the seawall. How does this happen ??!

Not such a bad job until you look westward, other side of the orange safety nets:

DCC Webmap – West Harbour Recreation Trail (damaged section)

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Apparently, DCC has assured Rotary that the damage will be put right by the contractor. However, because of no drying for some time Rotary’s scheduled work at this site is on hold (at least a five month delay).

Rotarians had raised funds from the public to carry out the project.

One of the Rotarians said he was ‘incandescent with rage’ over it – and did not often get incandescent!!

On Tuesday (May 30) I visited the area to take photographs.

This is yet another example of council ineptitude where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand’s doing. The council’s lack of oversight and the resulting damage may necessitate deeper foundations for the exercise equipment than Rotary had anticipated and budgeted. Their working bee planned for June 10 will be reduced in scale, with only installation of exercise equipment at Ravensbourne Footbridge taking place. The working bees for July and August have been cancelled as the site won’t be in a fit state to work on. Timing of the provision of barbeque facilities as part of the landscaping project is also affected.

There is the Huge Irony that Rotary have only just been awarded 1st Place by Keep Dunedin Beautiful, for their work on the recreation trail. The award came with a $100 cash prize.

Thankfully, say Rotarians, the damage wasn’t done until after the Trees for Babies planting was done on Mother’s Day (14 May).

The Keep Dunedin Beautiful Awards “celebrate and honour the people of Dunedin who are committed to beautifying their city and caring for their environment through volunteer action”.

“Each Autumn, in partnership with Rotary Dunedin, Keep Dunedin Beautiful organises tree plantings for babies and other family members in city reserves. Trees for Babies is a long-term native tree-planting project where family members can celebrate the birth of a child or any significant family milestone. It also contributes to a native re-vegetation project in a city reserve.”

Related Post and Comment:
7.8.15 Dunedin Rotary Club | West Harbour Recreation Trail

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Mosgiel (2015): Destroyed community beautification project —a development

Received.
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 at 2:27 p.m.

█ Message: The community board had a choice (2007) of which side of the road the footpath should go; and they chose to destroy the railway beautification project. Please note who the primary mover was. None other than Lester Harvey who received awards and whatever else for the beautification project. Surely he would’ve been the prime mover for the footpath to have been on the other side of the road (??), to preserve the beautification project that he claimed as his own.

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AGENDA FOR A MEETING OF THE MOSGIEL TAIERI COMMUNITY BOARD TO BE HELD IN THE DOWNES ROOM, MOSGIEL SERVICE CENTRE ON WEDNESDAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1999, COMMENCING AT 4.00 PM – ma_mtcb_m_2007_09_19.pdf

Click to access ma_mtcb_m_2007_09_19.pdf

Item 7. of the agenda makes interesting reading.

Otago 150th Anniversary plantings scraped away at Gladstone Road

Related Posts and Comments:
26.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —two totally different stories
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image supplied.

Dunedin Rotary Club | West Harbour Recreation Trail

Link and information supplied by Douglas (Mick) Field.

█ Message: I have been involved with Rotary doing the West Harbour Recreation project. I did a video of this as a means of describing the project – it sets out the scope of the work. I had a chat to Darrel Robinson who is in charge of the project for Rotary. He is happy for me to put it on YouTube which I will be doing shortly. Take a look.
Cheers, Mick

Douglas Field Published on Aug 4, 2015
West Harbour Recreation Trail 29 10 14
The West Harbour Recreation Project has been taken up by Rotary to provide and improve recreational activity as well as enhance the landscape along the shared pathway from the Boat Harbour to Maia. Already a lot of work has been completed. At present Rotary is completing the section at Ravensbourne Station and it is anticipated that the major recreational facility just north of the Boat Harbour will begin this year. Working ‘Bees’ are held once a month in conjunction with Dunedin’s Task Force Green team who do a great job in support and keeping the momentum up.
This clip outlines the scope and nature of the project.

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█ Message: As a matter of interest, the seat installed at the end of the clip is in memory of Robin Archer, ex city councillor – donated by his widow. Robin was chief architect for the Otago Education Board before it was decommissioned.

Douglas Field Published on Aug 6, 2015
Ravensbourne Station BBQ site 23 5 15
The Dunedin Rotary Club has a working ‘bee’ every month on the West Harbour Recreation Trail Project. This one was in May when they installed BBQ equipment at the Ravensbourne Station site. As you can see these people work very hard and – fast. As always, they were ably assisted by Task Force Green workers.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Significant tree: 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296

As a community board member and a businessman-resident, Martin Dillon, it seems, has set a precedent for removal of (District Plan listed) Significant Trees from the streets of Mosgiel township. Not only this, his community board supports the destruction of many community-established trees at Mosgiel’s Memorial Gardens – to make way for a new swimming pool complex. Earlier this year the community board was ultimately responsible for destruction of the community’s beautification scheme at Gladstone Road (railway corridor).
That’s one hell of a lot of greenery you’ve seen wiped off the planet, Mr Dillon.
SHAME ON YOU

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ANOTHER APPLICATION FOR REMOVAL – A COPPER BEECH THIS TIME
The tree is prettier than the freaking house beside it.

Significant tree – 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296
Closes: 28/08/2015
Notification of Application for a Resource Consent – Under Section 93(2) of the Resource Management Act 1991.
The Dunedin City Council has received the following application for Resource Consent:

Application description
To remove a tree that is listed in the Dunedin City District Plan under Schedule 25.3 as T151 (Copper Beech).

Application documents
● LUC-2015-296 – Public notice (PDF, 34.6 KB)
This document is the Public Notice for Resource Consent application LUC-2015-296

● LUC-2015-296 – Submission 13 form (PDF, 78.2 KB)
This document can be used to make a submission regarding Resource Consent application LUC-2015-296

● LUC-2015-296 – Application (PDF, 530.0 KB)
This document is a scanned copy of the application for resource consent LUC-2015-296

Notified resource consent details
Closing date: 28/08/2015
Consent number: Significant tree – 28 Argyle Street Mosgiel – LUC-2015-296

Name of applicant: M J Sproule & J A Maxwell

Location of site: 28 Argyle Street, Mosgiel, being that land legally described as Lot 3 Deposited Plan, 470637 held in Computer Freehold Register 636380

Address for service: M J Sproule & J A Maxwell, 34A Ayr Street, Mosgiel 9024

Online submissions: Online submission form

█ http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/council-online/notified-resource-consents/current-consultation/significant-tree-28-argyle-street-Mosgiel

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LUC-2015-296 [excerpts from application]

█ DCC on Significant Trees
█ Dunedin City District Plan — Schedule 25.3 Significant Trees (PDF, 275.6 KB)

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Related Posts and Comments:
24.7.15 Hands off Mosgiel Memorial Gardens
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road
14.12.14 Significant Tree: 23 Church St, Mosgiel [Applicant: M L & M C Dillon]
15.5.14 Significant Tree: 28A Heriot Row
22.2.13 DCC: Significant Trees

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DESTROYED, beautification project —two totally different stories

Taieri Herald 6.5.97 (page 6) – Re: Gladstone Road railway corridor, Mosgiel
[click to enlarge]

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### dunedintv.co.nz March 26, 2015 – 7:01pm
Nightly interview: Lester Harvey
The removal of plants and shrubs from the Gladstone Road railway corridor has angered some Mosgiel residents. Lester Harvey has spent years co-ordinating beautification efforts in the area, and hopes a meeting with KiwiRail will lead to a positive outcome.
Video

█ What if? fathoms that some strong politics care of DCC/ex-DCC/Community Board/KiwiRail is putting Lester Harvey in the spotlight. Not terribly nice being fall guy for the under-table politicians involved.

Gladstone Road, Mosgiel – minus Community plantings/beautification project.
Photos: Brian Miller

Related Post and Comments:
20.3.15 DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DESTROYED, beautification project —Railway corridor, Gladstone Road

Updated post Sat, 21 Mar 2015 at 11:55 p.m.
Brian Miller makes further comment, see below. More photographs.

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Received from Brian Miller
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 at 4:29 p.m.

VANDALISM —Nothing else goes near describing what is in this photo.
Let me start from the start.

Otago 150th Anniversary plantings scraped away at Gladstone Rd.

1997
As a Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board member I accepted the challenge of beautifying the railway corridor from Wingatui to Riccarton Road along a four-kilometre length of Gladstone Road. No other board member wanted anything to do with it, until I had it organised ready to go. They said. “It couldn’t be done.” Just the incentive I needed.

I had to make sure that all the boxes were ticked, before Tranz Rail would let the project begin. With that done, Board members fell over themselves to get involved.

Thousands of hours of voluntary labour went into the project. Alex Griffin and his Taskforce Green did most of the hard work. The local community donated the use of trucks and other equipment, while Lester Harvey ferreted out the thousands of shrubs. We turned what was an eyesore entry into Mosgiel into what it is today. A more welcoming entry. Unfortunately, the story does not end there.

As I said earlier we met all Tranz Rail’s requirements when we did our planting.

Just imagine how I felt this morning when I travelled along the section from Riccarton Road towards the industrial area, and the destruction of the thousands of hours of voluntary labour and gifted plants that had been ripped out. Total destruction of this section of the project. It appears to be at the orders of KiwiRail. The photo tells the story I really don’t have to say much more.

I wonder how those Task Force Green workers and other unemployed workers feel to see what they had contributed to the Mosgiel community, in part, being ripped up.

KiwiRail weren’t the first to vandalise this project, the Dunedin City Council had first crack and destroyed over half of this area by putting in the footpath that you can see in the photo. When they could have quite easily put the footpath on the other side of the road. This would have made it much safer for the school children of East Taieri, as they wouldn’t have had to cross the road twice as they do now to get to school.

The Community Board made this project part of the Otago 150 years’ celebrations. There has been a Fonterra Environmental award, The Queens Service Medal award, and Keep Dunedin Beautiful Awards for this project, but it appears that hasn’t stopped the vandalism.

[ends]

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█ What if? Dunedin notes this has happened on Cr Kate Wilson’s watch (Cr Wilson has been appointed to Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board as the DCC representative). It seems incumbent on DCC and ORC to seek a compensatory amount from KiwiRail for instatement of a new Community Project in the immediate area taking into account the devastating loss of the local community’s green amenity, historical investment of effort to establish the plantings in a difficult location, and the years of plant growth and cover destroyed.
Clearly, a distress and a humiliation.

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Received from Brian Miller
Sat, 21 Mar 2015 at 6:15 p.m.

Message: The Vandals are on the way.
These new photographs show:
1) The metal plaque confirming that the Railway corridor project was a ‘150 year’ project.
2) The sign up the pole is rather interesting —it shows DCC promoting an illegal activity: riding a bicycle on the footpath. A shared footpath and cycleway…. this is completely opposite to what the Council’s Transportation Planning manager wrote in response to a letter to the editor (ODT 13.11.14). She said in the reply: ‘To clarify, cycling on the footpath is illegal in NZ unless you are a NZ post employee or the bike has a wheel diameter less that 355mm usually a tricycle or small child’s bicycle.’
3) ALL the shrubs and trees for removal at Mosgiel’s Memorial Park on the proposed site of the new pool complex —described in the Taieri Community Facilities Trust’s (the pool trust) documents as “minimal site impact”, located to “minimize the removal of existing vegetation”.

Regards
Brian Miller

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