Waimea Weekly
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Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 29 March 2017
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Smaller landowners support dam
Women in Business
No more Joe Page 22
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Bus service to be investigated Simon Bloomberg Reporter
simon@waimeaweekly.co.nz
The drive for a new express bus service between Wakefield and Nelson hit a minor speed bump on Monday when the NelsonTasman Regional Transport committee rejected a request for a trial of the service. Support for the proposed bus route gathered momentum ear-
lier this month when its proponents presented a 1000-signature petition, asking for a trial to the Tasman District Council. Although the transport committee rejected the request for a trial, committee chair and Tasman district councillor Stu Bryant says they recommended that council conduct a feasibility study on the proposal. “It’s no good starting a trial without knowing what it’s going to
cost and how we are going to fund it,” Stu says. “We are also receiving demand for a bus service from other areas like Mapua, so we have to consider that as well.” Although the proposal was wellsupported in the petition, Stu says the service would need to have “a point of difference” to make it attractive to commuters. “If it sits in the same slow traffic as everyone else, why would you be on the bus? It needs to be an
express lane or have a cheap fare or a combination of those things.” Stu says the committee’s recommendation for a feasibility study is likely to be discussed at the next full council meeting on April 13. “It’s a pretty straightforward recommendation but it will be interesting to see if it gets full support from council,” Stu says. One of the supporters of the petition, Kate Malcolm, of sustainable transport lobby group Nelsust,
says “we are still hopeful” that the trial will proceed. Kate says she understands the need for a feasibility study but insists a trial is the only way to determine if the service is viable. “They haven’t said no and a desktop study is fine as long as it doesn’t drag on for years. We still think a trial is the best option because how do you know if people will use the bus until they have the opportunity.”
Butcher retires after 50 years Simon Bloomberg Ray Hutchinson won’t miss the early morning starts, but he will miss his workmates after calling it quits on almost half a century of working in butcher shops around Nelson. The 64-year-old received an emotional send-off from his workmates at Westmeat in Richmond last Wednesday when he had his last day on the job. It signalled the end of a 50 year career that started in 1967 when he left Nelson College and signed up as an apprentice in a “little butcher’s shop” on Weka St in Nelson. Ray Hutchinson retired from Westmeat Nelson last Wednesday after almost 50 years as a butcher. Photo: Simon Bloomberg.
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