December 6, 2021
www.localmatters.co.nz
FREE
Your locally-owned Community Newspaper
Lockdown marathon ends The Paddison family of Kaipara Flats never thought they would spend more than 100 days in lockdown when they started their street-side counter. Dad, Mike Paddison, had to put an extra hook into the sign and the kids painted some more number panels to accommodate triple digits. Each morning for 107 days, the Paddison girls – Alyssa, 7, Holly, 12, and Hannah, 9 – would do a different pose for a photograph, which became a popular daily update on the Kaipara Flats community page. It got to be such a routine, even the cat would line up. The Paddison family hopes not to have to use the counter again, although is considering re-purposing it for a countdown to Christmas. The Auckland region entered the ‘red light’ phase of the traffic light Covid-19 response framework last week on Friday, December 3, officially ending New Zealand’s longest lockdown.
Bowlers ponder sale of prime Warkworth site Nearly 100 years after it was founded, Bowls Warkworth has unveiled ambitious proposals to sell its Mill Lane club and build a new $7.5million world-class facility on public land at the bottom of Shoesmith Domain. The concept includes a large social club, two fully covered greens, parking for 100 cars and a “sky bar” – a raised viewing platform with a bar area running between the two playing areas.
Club secretary Mike Newland said in a deputation to last week’s Rodney Local Board that the present site was no longer fit for purpose and selling the town centre land would provide enough money to build a new club capable of hosting national and even international tournaments. “The club has been in Mill Lane for 100 years next year,” he said. “The site is long past its use-by date. We’re sitting on around 4500 square metres of land that is a pretty
prime piece of real estate and a bowling club is not the best use for it.” Mr Newland said the idea was to move the club to the site of Shoesmith Hall and the former women’s bowling club, north to Hill Street – around 6000 or 7000 square metres, all of which is public land owned by Auckland Council. “We want to turn it into New Zealand’s premier bowling club and it will all be funded by the sale of the Mill Lane land,”
RD Construction Master Tradesmen
he told board members. He said Shoesmith Hall could either be kept and renovated by Warkworth Bowls, or it could be demolished, with current clubs and activities incorporated into the new social club building. Warkworth Bowls president Francois Loubser said the new club would be revolutionary, attracting a raft of new casual continued on page 2 WWW.RDCONSTRUCTION.CO.NZ
Ltd
BUILDING QUALITY HOMES THE WAY YOU WANT THEM Renovation specialists | Decks | New Homes CONTACT RICHARD DENTON 021
423 943 OR A/HRS: 09 423 9445 EMAIL BUILDRDC@GMAIL.COM