How Busy Are Our Lakes?

As a local resident  it is hard to miss the fact that our lakes are a huge drawcard for all sorts of people doing any number of sports on and around the water. These range from organised events with a registration fee, to club and social groups taking  advantage of an ideal environment located close to the city.

Understandably this is causing some unexpected issues for local residents, participants and RDC.  Anecdotal evidence says that some lakes are having huge issues with rubbish, boat trailers and lake closures to name a few.

Locals raised these issues with the Rotorua Lakes Community Board, Environment Bay of Plenty and Rotorua District Council late last year and a report was commissioned to look at these and other related issues.

The draft report has now been released.  Among other things, the report acknowledges that each lake has its own character and therefore requires a specific response unique to that lake.  The lakes community will be invited  to share their thoughts on this issue later this year.

I look forward to hearing your views when responses are invited.

Large Tree Required To Print Annual Plan Submissions

I’ve spent time this weekend reading the submissions we’ve received to the annual plan and I’m delighted to see how many there are, how willing our community is to have their say.

There were 3,754 submissions and 3,416 were about the Council’s plan for recycling in our community and 124 were in response to the draft Air Quality Bylaw.

As far recycling is concerned, the vast majority (over 85%) of submissions have favoured the Council’s preferred option of enlarging the current in town recycling centre and adding an additional site at Ngongotaha.

 Some submissions raised questions about the accuracy, presentation and a perceived bias of the provided information, favouring the status quo.  Even so, we have received a very clear message of community preference for recycling centres over kerbside collection, even though kerbside collection is provided by almost every other Council in the country.

My concern about the plan to simply enlarge our recycling centre and add one more, is that this will not necessarily encourage people to start recycling if they do not already do so.  A larger in-town centre will obviously be easier to use, but will more people be encouraged to use it?

The Council has devoted the coming week to hear and consider all submissions.  The issue will be formally debated in June and a decision will be made at that time.  If the Council decision goes with the weight of submissions, I sincerely hope that this is only the beginning of a very intensive program encouraging more of our community to actively recycle and reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill.