Simms sets out how Butcher lease ended
Your correspondent Rory O’Malley (ODT Letters 19.2.26) has certainly not let the facts get in the way of a good personal attack.
The Mad Butcher was a tenant of mine for 15 years and 9 months. The lease expired on 30 June 2025. I wrote to the Auckland-based principals of the business on 30 June 2024, a year before the final lease expiry, to advise them of my intention to demolish the building at the expiry of their lease and redevelop the site.
A new lease was not therefore possible.
The existing building is old, earthquake prone and has some asbestos present. It is for all practical intents at the end of its economic life, becoming difficult and expensive to insure.
At the same time, I moved my car business out of the other end of the building and leased alternative premises to make way for the demolition.
Prior to the final lease expiry on June 25, the Mad Butcher advised me that they had been unable to find alternative premises. Three times the lease was informally extended to give the owners of the Mad Butcher time to find new premises, and three times the demolition was delayed.
Despite there being several options presented these were either too big, too small, too expensive or zoned incorrectly for a retail butcher’s shop.
In 2010 I had spent $20,000 fighting City Hall to allow the Mad Butcher to establish on its current site which, like much of Andersons Bay Rd, is zoned industrial. A retail butchery is not a permitted activity.
It is possible that other potential landlords in the area were unwilling to take up that fight. I do not understand the dynamics of running a retail butcher’s shop but remain mystified why an alternative site could not be found in nearly two years.
The Mad Butcher is a large national business with significant wherewithal to adapt its business when required.
The loss of jobs is very regrettable, as is the loss of the Mad Butcher from the Dunedin landscape.
But that outcome is not down to a lack of effort on my part, as was acknowledged by the Mad Butcher in your original story (ODT 17.2.26).
A clean contest
The trial walk, cycleway along a section of the Queens Dr has created a lot of comments. As a member of Keep Dunedin Beautiful, I'm primarily interested in facts.
The area is used frequently and repeatedly by fly tippers — i.e. those who prefer to dump their rubbish in forested areas rather than by using the legal curbside services or taking a trip to the tip.
KDB has done three simultaneous rubbish collection clean-ups in January in the trial area. These clean-ups will be repeated after the trial is completed.
In two hours volunteers collected 20 bags of rubbish (approximately 120kg), one tyre, two trampolines, traffic cones and other large items which would have required motorised transport to the point of being dumped.
KDB co-ordinates regular clean-ups around the city and environs and has observed that high foot traffic areas close to town and shops tend to have everyday litter issues, and that litter usually ends up tossed — shamefully — into the nearest bit of bush. As you move further from the city centre, such areas actually stay much cleaner.
The real trouble starts in places with dense vegetation with low to medium traffic. This is where we see the worst form of littering, such as that collected from the trial area.
Dumping brings huge amounts of waste into our ecosystems, and once it starts, it tends to encourage even more. Some of the known hotspots include Serpentine Ave, MacLaggan St, Queens Dr in several places, Whare Flat, and Brackens Lookout.
The post trial follow-up clean-ups should be informative.
130 years on, Brunner disaster is not forgotten
I am writing to inform your readers that plans are progressing to mark the 130th anniversary of the Brunner Mine disaster this March on the West Coast.
The final death toll from the 1896 coal mine blast was 65, and it remains New Zealand’s deadliest industrial accident.
My great-grandfather, John Roberts, was killed in the blast, along with three of his sons: William, Samuel, and David.
The 130th anniversary of the Brunner Mine Disaster will be commemorated on March 26 at the mine site and at the nearby Stillwater Cemetery.
The commemorations will begin at the mine site near Dobson before moving to Stillwater.
We welcome any descendants and other interested parties to attend.
More information will be released closer to the date on the Lake Brunner School Facebook page.
People can also email me at rangisdad@outlook.com.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
