Petone

Petone: New Motel Development seeks resource consent

The new motel development is at resource consent stage and will be situated at 44 Cuba Street, just off Jackson Street. It will incorporate an adjacent property and has the backing of the developer Mr Rudings.

Mr Rudings says he learned a lot from building Boulcott Lodge (opens end of July) in Lower Hutt (see below)

and he is confident that he can avoid the problems that delayed it when it comes to the Petone motel.

His application for resource consent is based on a 21 unit property on the corner of Cuba and Heretaunga Streets.

To try and avoid any difficulties with neighbours he says he personally visited 25 neighbours to explain the proposal. Consultation also included two presentations to the Petone Planning Action Group and local residents.

A local urban design consultant was also used to make sure the two-storied building blends in. The design will make the motel look like three buildings, so it does not look out of place amongst residential properties, he says.

The site currently features a dilapidated house and a large building that was once used for car upholstery.

The feedback he has got from neighbours is that they believe the motel will improve the area.

The design includes traffic calming measures in the entrance of Heretaunga Street, which he will pay for.

”That will slow down the boy racers and make the place look much better.”

The proposed design does not conform with the District Plan on three aspects but Mr Rudings says they are all minor and he is confident that he will get consent.

Petone: Keep It Beautiful

Keep Petone Beautiful, with the support of Petone Rotary, offers a gift of green (a native tree or shrub) to all babies born to Petone and Korokoro residents during the past year.

We have application forms, as do Petone Plunket and Playdays toyshop.

If you are in this situation come in and get a form to fill in; if you know someone, let them know. Applications close at the end of this month.

Courtesy of Storybooks which is a specialist children’s bookshop near the centre of Petone’s Jackson Street.

Petone Winter Carnival 2009

Just some of the festivities at the Petone Winter Carnival on the foreshore. Attended by many old and young alike and blessed with the joy of a Winters day of sunshine. Thanks to the key sponsors Leisure Active, Hutt City Council and the rest for the effort to put on this event

Circus Training taken advantage of by the young

Unicycles, Hula Hoops and Juggling

48 Metre new mural by artist Daniel Mills depicting “The Legend of Te Whanganui a Tara”

Fun Rides on the Petone foreshore

E Tu (Stand Up) Fire Sculpture Construction for that nights bonfires and fireworks.

Potty Training!

There are more photos on my twitter account www.twitter.com//HuttNZ or sidebar following twitter

Cheers to David St George for providing photos from Fireworks and Sculpture display that night, make sure you check out his profile and other photos on his site great work.

and also thanks to www.twitter.com/Greeenapple

and an awesome sequence from Matt Oliver a series of photos taken from Korokoro Road

Great work

Thanks to everyone for responding and your contributions

Petone: Costly resource consent process for Jackson Street

Every building owner in Jackson Street has to submit a resource consent application to paint a building, its frontage or to comply to rules about signage.

Each consent application costs $750 which in the current economic climate is a distinct disincentive to upgrading buildings. The result, a reluctance to action any upgrade to the look of the 160 buildings making up Jackson St commercial area.

A recommendation was recented submitted to the Hutt City Council Operations and Compliance. One of its recommendations is that a subsidy of $600 be provided for each consent, notified or non-notified. This could see council income reduce by up to $24,000 based on current figures dependent on demand.

No doubt this equally will not be acceptable by council in the current climate either, as revenue from recent property development in Jackson Street has been curtailed given the economic climate against recent years.

Jackson Street has turned into a “destination” area for shopping and is a recent example of success that can be garnered from development provided with the right economic conditions both external (economy) and internal (council consents). Given this the council needs to be proactive in ensuring the continual success of this area by looking carefully into providing the right climate for this success to continue even if external conditions are against it.

Dont kill a success by being blinded by small time revenue gathering, look at what Petone offers to the Hutt and perhaps change the rules to be relaxed in the submission process.

Ex Petone Football Club manager up on child sex charges

A former soccer club manager is facing charges of sexually abusing children over a timespan of more than 20 years.

Grant Williams, 69, of Maungaraki, appeared in Lower Hutt District court yesterday facing 15 charges including indecent assault and sexual violation.

Williams was a long-time member of Petone Football Club and its manager for several years.

The charges relate to four boys who were aged between 9 and 12 at the time of the alleged abuse. Most of the abuse was said to have happened in the 1980s, though one charge is for an indecent assault in 1962.

Williams was remanded on bail for a pre-depositions hearing on June 11. He refused to comment on the allegations outside court yesterday.

Football club chairman Craig Deadman confirmed Williams’ former position at the club and said police had told him of the allegations.

Williams left the club in 1995 because of declining sponsorship and had not had any involvement since, Mr Deadman said.

Woman dies off Petone Wharf

A woman has died after jumping off Petone wharf, police say.

A witness saw the unidentified female take off her shoes and jump into the water about 1.30pm.

Inspector Paul Jermy said the witness called police immediately and a police launch set off within a minute of the call.

Westpac Rescue Helicopter staff were called in to help with the search.

The woman was pulled from the water 15-20 minutes later but CPR was unsuccessful.

Her death has been referred to the coroner.

via Stuff

Petone new community swimming pool? Submissions in

The vast majority of submissions made to the McKenzie Pool working group are in favour of the existing site in Udy St being redeveloped, an analysis of 500 of the 800 submissions shows.

Just on 56% of the submissions are in favour of developing the existing site, 26% support constructing a more sophisticated pool complex on a different site.

The working group met last week to discuss the two remaining swimming pool options: redeveloping the existing McKenzie Pool site (estimated cost $1.25 million) or building a leisure/spa complex on Hikoikoi Reserve on the foreshore in Petone ($6 million).

“By far the greater recommendation in the submissions is to keep the McKenzie pool site,” Cr Joy Baird, who chairs the group, says.

But public submissions are only “one input” into the decision making process, and they must be further analysed, she says.

The views of the people who made the submissions are dictated by the current usage, proximity and convenience of the McKenzie pool, she believes.

The group has requested information on where the people who made submissions come from – the Hutt or Petone, for example. They also want the projected running costs and expected patronage for the two options.
But Joan McGrath, principal of Sacred Heart School, and the Petone Schools Representative in the Working Group, is concerned the submissions will not be given the weight they deserve in the decision making process.

“My fear is that the council want an iconic site on the foreshore and will disregard all objections to achieve that.”

She says there is a “clear feeling” that the council is favouring the development of the ‘destination’ pool on the foreshore. Ms McGrath also believes the submitters, when voting for the more sophisticated site, were unaware it would be at the Hikoikoi site.

“I don’t think that was made clear,” she says.

Cr Baird says that even though the Hikoikoi site would be considerably more expensive, the council is leaning towards a ‘destination pool’.

“Hutt City doesn’t have a pool like that. Our pools are not very sophisticated.”

Current Council reference terms and reports here

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Petone currently has the outdoor McKenzie Pool in Udy Street Petone. It was built in 1933 and is only open over summer for roughly 15 weeks.

A report in 2007 by the city council found it was in poor condition and needs roughly $900,000 worth of maintanence.

A working group was established to investigate a number of options and as councillors prepare for final debate on the 2009/2010 Community Plan, $1.25 million has been earmarked for this project to progress.

The latest report from the working group concludes there are only two realistic options:

Rebuild on the existing site

Estimated cost of $1.3 million for an outdoor pool that would operate 22 weeks a year.

2. Start anew on Hikoikoi Reserve

Build a “leisure spa” on the reserve (which has not been costed) estimated to top $6million.

This option would include an indoor pool, gym, spa, toddlers pool and cafe.

Council officers have promoted the Hikoikoi Reserve as a regional facility that would attract people to Hutt City. The report said the reserve had many advantages including its size, proximity to a childrens playground, parking availability, room for expansion and proximity to a main arterial road. The report also suggested that the council stands a better chance of getting outside funding if it built a regional facility. The cost of this development could be offset partly by the sale of the McKenzie Pool site (est value $480,000). Also building on the reserve enables the current pool to used until project is completed.

A third site was being considered being the Settlers Muesum site. It has the advantage of proximity to the beach and a main road, and would return the building to its original purpose, supporting recreational activities on the beach. However several issues need to be considered carefully, the site is long and narrow, limited parking, high likelihood of opposition from residents concerned at the loss of a view, and the alterations to a heritage building. Given all of this it is not a likely contender.

In March, a working group of council staff, politicians and community representatives called for a business meeting to discuss further the available options and make some agreement on going forward on the project.

Several other options need to be investigated including Petone Rec, Weltec and the benefits to the principal users not being lost in any redevelopment

Petone Factory Blast Call for Shutdown

Update 2 May

Neighbours of battery-recyclers Exide Technologies want it shut down after an explosion shattered windows and hurled broken glass across the footpath.

Fire crews were called to the Petone factory after the blast, caused by molten slag coming into contact with water.

Slag contains lead, tin, antimony, arsenic, calcium and selenium.

Greater Wellington regional council environmental regulation manager Al Cross said staff would check monitoring equipment to see if lead dust was blown out of the plant.

Under its resource consent the company must provide monthly air sampling data.

Nearby workers told of a rumbling sound, then a loud boom just before 12.30pm yesterday.

Katy Evans said she heard what sounded like an earthquake.

“All of a sudden there was an explosion and the breaking of glass. We ran out, dialling 111 as we went to see that the factory had blown out windows and there was smoke coming from some of them.”

The blast, in the furnace room, smashed windows and twisted aluminum framing.

Kristiane Discombe, from Chalmers Building Maintenance next-door to Exide, was almost hit by planks knocked off a wall.

“It felt like an earthquake with the whole building shaking. I jumped and bolted.”

Two nearby Exide staff members were unhurt.

Business owner Aaron Chalmers has been been so worried about heat coming off the Exide building he has monitored it with a thermal imaging camera.

A shared wall reached 100 degrees in places, he said.

“It’s disgusting this has happened, it’s got to be shut down.”

Richard Whiteside, a nearby property manager, said the blast could have killed someone.

“It’s pure luck. There’s a bus stop just 20 metres away. It’s just not appropriate where it is.”

Seaview station officer Gary Stallard said firefighters wearing breathing gear went inside the building. The explosion was confined to its front.

Exide has twice been convicted for illegal lead discharges beyond court-imposed health limits designed to protect local residents, and was fined $30,000 last year.

The limits were imposed after Regional Public Health said in 2005 long-term exposure to Exide’s lead was a health risk to pregnant women and young children.

Spokesman Mark Unsworth said there had been no danger to the public from yesterday’s blast.

The furnace had been shut down.

“Exide will continue to work with authorities as the full investigation is undertaken, and expects to be fully operational again within 24 hours.”

Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard said the battery plant “should just close”.

“I think it should not have a long-term future, and this might be a chance to bring that forward.”

A Labour Department spokesman said it was investigating the accident.

via Stuff

——————————————————————————————————–

Emergency services are at a Lower Hutt battery factory after a boiler exploded.

The blast happened at the Exide Technologies factory in Petone, south of Lower Hutt.

Police said the blast appeared to have come from a furnace.

Fire communications spokeswoman Linda Beets said the explosion blew out windows in buildings near-by.

She said no injuries were caused by the explosion.

Ms Beets said police and the Labour Department were investigating the cause of the explosion and the regional council was testing to see if the explosion had caused any air pollution.

Petone Civil Aviation Authority move to Wellington

Transport Minister Steven Joyce says he is “not at all impressed” with the $8.5 million cost for the Civil Aviation Authority to move from its current Petone location (10 Hutt Road) to a new, multi-storied building in downtown Wellington.

The rental costs in the new building will be considerably higher on a per square metre basis than the CAA’s current facilities in Petone.

The decision to relocate was made last year, prior to the general election, and was supported by the then Transport Minister Annette King.

The move is scheduled for the end of next year. “I am not impressed that these costs are being incurred to this level and at this time when New Zealanders are having to tighten their belts in the current global economic recession,” says Mr Joyce.

About 90% of CAA revenue comes from industry fees and charges, including the domestic passenger levy.

Mr Joyce says he has made his views on this matter very clear to the Civil Aviation Authority.

“I have tested the options to amend or not go through with this move over a period of time with the Chair of the CAA. Unfortunately commitments were made with the support of the previous government that are unable to be changed.

“The CAA has assured me that everything possible will be done to contain costs going forward from here.”

Aussie Steve Donnelly has been around before!

Know as the man who banned Wainuiomata from his motel in Palmerston North, it is not the first time the Hutt Valley has had exposure to Mr Donnelly and his forthright manner.

This is the same Mr Donnelly behind the 82 apartment Settlers complex in Jackson Street Petone.

This project was abandoned earlier this year after protracted planning hearings pushed out the development into the real estate downturn.

Mr Donnelly told the Hutt News paper at the time that when he builds the 8 storey towers when the recovery comes

“I’ll stand on the top storey and spit on those people (who objected)”

Nice, no doubt Aussie Steve does not mince his words.