Last year in May Council elevated the proposed footpath connection from the Moutere Hills Community Centre to Upper Moutere Village running alongside the Moutere Highway to become one of the four next footpath projects to be delivered by Tasman District Council. At that moment, planning for the footpath went over into the hands of the TDC Transportation Department.
Since then the TDC engineers have been busy investigating possible construction options for this footpath. MHRA committee members met with two of TDC's engineers this week to get an update on current developments.
Last year, in response to a guide document released by Tasman District Council, the Moutere Hills Residents Association ran an online survey to establish local opinion on whether 'Tiny Houses' can be useful in addressing housing problems in New Zealand. You can see the survey results here.
In the survey, our community responded strongly in favour of investigating new legislation to facilitate construction and use of 'Tiny Houses'. We are therefore now forwarding a link to a current Parliamentary Petition on the subject which was initiated in December and which is in support of "Tiny/mobile dwellings as a permanent, healthy, affordable & dignified residence."
If you are interested and in favour of the issue, follow this link to the online petition.
TDC is commencing a consultation on the future of Kingsland Forest in Richmond.
This Council-owned forestry is due for a harvesting cycle and TDC is collecting public feedback on whether the area should be re-planted for future revenue generation or gradually be changed over to other permanent planting and creation of tracks for recreational use. See the Council news item here.
Take our online survey to let us know your view on the future of Council-owned forests in Tasman District: replant for revenue or change over for conservation and recreational use? One question only - it takes only seconds of your time, so have your say!
In a newly beginning consultation process, TDC is seeking feedback on the management of the 155 public parks and reserves in the Moutere-Waimea ward.
Reserves in the ward range from Aranui Park, Hoddy Estuary Park and Lord Rutherford Park to esplanade reserves alongside rivers and the Waimea Inlet, along with recreation reserves at Dovedale, Upper Moutere, Kina Beach. Lists and maps of all reserves in the ward can be viewed here. See Map 5 in the maps document for Upper Moutere area.
At this early stage TDC would like to know what you love about the reserves, whether they could be improved in any way and what your long-term vision is. How would you like them to be 10 to 20 years from now?
Take TDC's online survey to provide your feedback.
From the TDC news feed, relevant for all farmers in the area:
With a number of environmental issues currently being consulted on by the Government, Beef+Lamb NZ is running an Environmental Issues Farmer Roadshow to help farmers understand what's going on, get feedback from farmers on their thoughts on the policies being proposed, and to provide advice for farmers wanting to make a submission.
In Tasman, the B+LNZ roadshow is at Moutere Hills Community Centre in Upper Moutere on Thursday October 24 from 5:30pm till 8:30pm. All farmers welcome.
View the schedule of Freshwater Policy Farmer meetings.
Find out more about the Government consultation on the Essential Freshwater policy.