MOSGIEL-TAIERI COMMUNITY BOARD
Funds for toilet cleaning
Funds to help maintain a well-used toilet block at the Taieri Historical Park have been granted.
The Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board has given $1820 to the Taieri Historical Society towards cleaning and stocking of the facility.
Society president Neil Gamble said it had made repairs to the block, including repiping, but there were ongoing cleaning and maintenance costs.
Although the Taieri Historical Museum was only open on Sundays, the park was open seven days a week and the toilets were not locked.
The board discussed if cleaning of the toilet could be added to a Dunedin City Council maintenance contract that included toilets at Outram Glen and the Memorial Hall at Outram.
Mr Gamble said the society was very grateful to the council who had been very supportive, including providing grants through the Dunedin Heritage Fund for improvements to buildings at the park such as the former Outram School and the former Outram Courthouse.
Funds for path
A tourist path that will link places of interest in Outram has been granted $2750 by the Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board towards work on the track.
The Rotary Club of Taieri Charitable Trust sought funds to help construct the 2km Outram Loop Track, a 1.5m gravel path linking the Outram township, the Taieri Historical Park and Outram Glen.
In its application, the Outram Loop Track committee, under the umbrella of the Rotary Club of Taieri Charitable Trust, outlined it had raised half of the total cost of the project of more than $213,000.
Board chairman Andrew Simms said when completed it would be a very significant community asset and the project was entirely funded as a community project.
Funds for pest eradication
West Taieri Environmental Care Trust has received $2750 to support a predator-control programme at Outram Glen.
Funds will help pay for traps targeting stoats, ferrets, possums, rats and mice, helping restore native biodiversity.
The trust aims to involve the wider community in the project, local schools taking part through both education and hands-on sessions.
Voices on future plans
The board has ratified its submissions on the Dunedin City Council’s draft 9-Year Plan and the Otago Regional Council’s annual plan.
Members of the board provided updates on a range of activities.
Kathryn Anderson noted the Taieri Network had now moved to more central local premises in Gordon Rd.
New name for response groups
Community emergency groups are being renamed to community resilience groups.
Board chairman Andrew Simms said a recent workshop organised by the Dunedin City Council and Emergency Management Otago clarified the community board’s responsibilities in an emergency.
The workshop, attended by representatives of local community boards, Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council and Emergency Management Otago, clarified responsibilities in response efforts.
A key change was renaming community response groups to community resilience groups.
Mosgiel/Taieri and Outram community resilience groups would still be an important part of emergency response.
There was a very clear link and relationship between the groups and the role of community boards and council, Mr Simms said.
New services highlighted
Social media representative Regan Horrell said there were plans to give information on the new electric buses and on-demand service starting in July. He discussed the potential of creating videos highlighting the updated services.
Support for conference attendance
The Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board is writing to the Dunedin City Council to request funding of up to $2000 to be made available to enable board member Regan Horrell to attend Local Government New Zealand’s SuperLocal conference taking place in Christchurch in July.
Mr Horrell is the community boards executive committee zone 6 representative, which encompasses 25 community boards in eight council areas including Dunedin, Balclutha, Central Otago, Queenstown-Lakes and Waitaki.
Inland hubs discussed
In a last minute addition to his chairman’s report, board chairman Andrew Simms highlighted recent announcements regarding two separate proposed inland freight hub projects.
Recently Calder Stewart announced it was planning an inland port at Milburn near Milton and soon after, the government announced it was supporting Port Otago and Dynes Transport’s proposed inland port in North Taieri with an $8.2million loan.
Mr Simms said he thought there was some ‘‘misinformation flying around’’.
The board had previously given conditional support to the inland freight hub in Mosgiel/Taieri via a submission to the Future Development Strategy process.
A critical part of the inland port proposal in North Taieri was that Port Otago were tasked with making it work.
‘‘It is not a freight forwarding hub, it is actually an inland port, so a lot of the freight that will go out through there will actually come by rail.’’
The benefit of the North Taieri location as opposed to Milburn was its proximity to the seaport, Mr Simms said.
He highlighted that the board’s support for Mosgiel-Taieri inland hub was tagged with the need to address transport issues in Mosgiel and a hoped-for heavy transport bypass.
‘‘The next board is going to have to keep an eye on that to advocate for it.’’
