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Guardian
Ashbu hburto rton n FIRST PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 1879
Our people, our place, our Guardian
Friday, November 4, 2011
.co.nz
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Hard cash needed to save station By Sue Newman Enthusiasm alone won’t save Ashburton’s railway station; only $500,000 can ensure the historic building has chance at survival. The Ashburton Heritage Trust called a meeting last night in a final effort to save the station from demolition by decay at the hands of owner Redson Corporation. And while trust members spoke to a crowd of about 100 supporters, they struggled to find people prepared to stand up and do the hard work of raising funds. The trust has until January 31 to have money raised or pledged to buy the station. It already has one tenant committed to setting up a business in the building and two others interested in smaller spaces. It has been battling to save the station since February 2008 after an application to demolish was made by its owner. That application has been refused, appealed and is currently in limbo. Raising the money alone, however, does not mean the trust will be able to buy the station said chair Peter Opthoog; it also had to negotiate with an unwilling seller. The trust’s valuation is $450,000 to $500,000 but the owner’s valuation is higher. “His asking price is even higher, around $620,000. We’ve made an offer based on what we expect our new valuation to be but there’s been no response, but we’re now in a bit of a Mexican stand-off.” The trust has the end of January to come back to the Environment Court with an indication of the money it can raise and a plan for obtaining grants. “ If do this, we might get an extension, but if we’re still holding meetings and so on then it’ll be dead duck,” Mr Opthoog said. And there was also the unknown factor – was the owner actually prepared to sell or
was he hoping the trust would give up and walk away? he said. The trust has just $40,000 in pledged funds and without strong community support both in helping with the fundraising effort and actual giving, reaching that goal by January 31 will be impossible, trust member Michael Hanrahan said. “Unfortunately there comes a time when you have to say enough and for us $500,000 is it. The Environment Court can’t make him sell.” While the Ashburton District Council had voted not to give money to the trust, it had made efforts over the years to resolve the impasse, Mr Hanrahan said. “The first deal council put to him was a large section in the new industrial estate in exchange for the station. Now, before we go to council asking for money or a loan, we have to have community support and that only comes by the community putting their hands in their pockets. If the community comes up with $300,000 I’m sure the council would come up with the rest. We have to raise this money by whatever means we can.” Ashburton District Councillor Don McLeod nailed his flag to the mast when he stood up and told the meeting that he thought the council should be supporting the trust financially. “There are some councillors, and I’m one of them, who are in favour of trying to save the railway station. I agree with almost everything that’s been said, but I’m not the one you have to convince. There are 13 of us around the table and you need a majority to pass anything.” A motion to give money to the heritage trust for the station had been put to council and it was “significantly defeated”, Mr McLeod said. “I would love to see the railway station preserved and maintained, but I can’t make it happen on my own.”
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Come fly your kite By Daniel Henderson
PHOTO JOHNNY HOUSTON 031111-JH-165
Ashburton College head boy and girl for 2012, George McDonald and Sam McLay.
College head students thrilled By Amanda Durry When George McDonald was named Ashburton College head boy for 2012, it made it two-from-two for his family. The 17-year-old was told he would lead the school next year alongside new head girl, Sam McLay, at the Year 12 prizegiving last night. It’s a role he knows a bit about, as older brother Jack was head boy this year. George said he was happy to be following in his brother’s footsteps and now the pressure was on their younger sister to complete the hatrick. “I was really happy to get it because it was such a tight competition. I’m
hoping to get one up on my brother and am just looking forward to the year ahead; it’s going to be a huge one and the last one at home before we get chucked out on our own,” he said. Sam, also 17, was also looking forward to the year ahead. “It was amazing to hear my name come up, it’s just an honour because it’s been a goal of mine since I started here in Year 9. “All of the girls going for the position were lovely and any one of them could have done a fantastic job,” she said. The competition was so close, the decision was only made about half an hour before the prizegiving began. Principal Grant McMillan said the decision had been extremely difficult
The inaugural Kites Over Canterbury will be held at Lake Hood this Saturday from 11am to 6pm. It promises to be an excellent family day out. Families are encouraged to bring their kites along to fly, and there will be a kitemaking workshop, displays of kite-powered vehicles including buggies, blo-carts, paramotoring and hot-air balloons. Also present will be a festival market for the latest arts, crafts and plants while food and refreshments will be available from the Lake House restaurant or fast food kiosk. The event will feature Ashburton’s world famous kite maker Peter Lynn displaying some of his show kites. He is famous for his construction of the world’s largest kite – a 1019m2 Flag of Kuwait (logged in the Guinness Book of records), the popularisation of kite-buggying and contributions to the development of power kiting and kite-surfing.
Vehicle stolen
A
nother vehicle has been reported stolen to the Ashburton police. The vehicle was taken from a property in Hinds between 4.30pm and 5.30pm on Wednesday. It was the second this week. Two vehicles were entered on Houston Place overnight on Wednesday and stereo equipment and car accessories taken.
because the final eight students were all high quality young people. All candidates had to have a speech prepared in case they won, with George choosing to use the recent Rugby World Cup success as a profound simile to motivate his fellow students. “School is a lot like the French rugby team. The majority of the time, it’s not a major challenge, although there are times when it comes out of nowhere and the pressure is insane. “But with hard work and a lot of perseverance, you can claim the major spoils,” he said. The other big announcement of the evening was top Year 12 student, which went to Caitlin Swan.
Breakers fly high
A
s the players gazed at the championship banner being raised at the North Shore Events Centre last night, a few of them might have been contemplating whether they can add another one in 12 months’ time. Last night they took their record to five wins from six games to remain on top of the table and, in doing so, extended their winning run against Adelaide to eight games. But they won’t be happy they let an Adelaide side who at one point trailed by 24 points back into the match. It was a lot closer than it should have been as the Breakers went from shooting an impressive 60 per cent to shooting themselves in the foot.
Full results, Page 8
Good weather helps salvors Tauranga – Improved weather is giving salvage teams onboard the grounded container ship Rena a boost as they prepare to transfer oil from its submerged tank. There were now 22 salvors onboard the ship, said salvage unit manager Bruce Anderson. The first team onboard yesterday morning carried out safety inspections to ensure there were no noxious gases present from the rotting food on board, to make sure the vessel was as safe as possible for those working on the ship. The cargo ship grounded on the Astrolabe Reef near Tauranga a month ago with 121 containers, some holding perishable food which have been decomposing. Another team continued to work on transferring oil and residual lubricants in the engine room to a centralised tank, to make it easier to pump off Rena and onto Awanuia. Divers have continued working so a team can resume accessing the 358 tonnes of oil in the submerged 5 star-
board tank. Work is also progressing on a `hot tapping’ technique to transfer the oil from the starboard tank. This involves penetrating the oil tank underwater in a way that does not release any oil. Meanwhile, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council is developing a long-term plan for monitoring the environmental effects caused by the ship’s grounding. The plan _ a partnership between local government authorities, central government agencies and iwi _ will cover areas known to have been affected by oil and container debris. According to the regional council’s science manager Rob Donald the monitoring could continue for several years. “Monitoring will be our best way to understand the impact on our beaches and marine life. “In the first instance we want to be able to give health authorities the information they need to advise the public on the safe recreational use of beach areas and the safety of seafood,” he said.
Mr Donald said the environmental monitoring that began after the Rena stranding on October 5 involved baseline sampling of water, sediment and seafood. That was before the oil spills affected the coastline and offshore islands. “These samples are being analysed and the results will be compared to samples that are known to have come into contact with the oil,” he said. The oil spill response team was also continuing to assess, clean and re-clean the oiled beaches and were prepared for a further significant release of oil from the ship, said assistant national on scene commander Andrew Berry. A small amount of oil was found at the high tide mark near Leisure Island, which was likely to be the result of the storm on Tuesday night and there was still residual oil in the water and in the sand, he said. About 170 volunteers were out on clean-up duties yesterday on Motiti Island, Maketu Peninsula, Papamoa and Te Tumu. – APNZ
NZ bikers killed
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here are unconfirmed reports that two New Zealanders have been killed in a motorbike accident in Nepal. A local reporter told the New Zealand Herald the pair had been named as Sarah Louise Davidson, 63, and Christopher Mark Bishop, 58. The Deputy Inspector General of Nepal police, Binod Singh, said the pair were killed instantly when they lost control of their motorbike on Thursday morning (local time). – APNZ
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