It has been years since I’ve been to Waipori, but I need to go again because something is bubbling under the surface.
If you’ve never been there, it’ll take you just under an hour via the motorway (you turn off at Berwick-Henley).
I wrote about Waipori Falls Villages recently, in particular how a legal stoush was brewing over a dispute concerning levies. You can read that here.
Properties were put into a body corporate, which required residents to pay levies to upkeep the village’s infrastructure.
Essentially, there are 33 properties that are part of a body corporate, but the inequity of the payments of levies is causing distress.
I’m aware of a few incidents over the last few years, including police call outs, while there is a matter currently before the courts.
The village is isolated, and many of the villagers I spoke to were fearful of what could transpire, but particularly financially.
Some residents are struggling to pay their levies, and face the threat of losing their major asset. Those same properties can sell between $100,000 and $250,000, but not all can afford to stay there. Several property owners feared the village itself would collapse, leaving them homeless and in debt.
One reader said this:
“Now that the matter has raised its head again, and legal action will ensue, the village is doomed. In all likelihood the village will go bankrupt and fail. What happens then?”
At the heart of the issue was maintaining core infrastructure, including a sewerage plant and a water treatment plant, which was owned and operated in-house. If you’ve been reading about Three Waters over the last year, this is the potential future awaiting people if assets become neglected.
Another former resident wrote:
“The expense and skill of maintaining the roads, waste and water is well beyond most of the residents’ ability to manage, and it was a fairly rag-tag group of residents with varying levels of financial/social skills.”
Good to see the hundreds of people protesting cuts to the University of Otago this afternoon. It comes as a colleague of mine (working on a different, national-focused story) got this released under the Official Information Act:
Obviously most of the above involves health sciences, which I doubt will be impacted by the proposed cuts.
However, the goodwill built up over decades by staff and students is also at threat by these cuts.
There was talk today that Language and Cultures programmes, including Asian Studies, European Studies, Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, have been cut.
But I understand that no final decision has been made.
In the weekend I covered the death of a young man, now named as Michael McClelland, who was a passenger in a car which crashed on Melbourne St.
It was a pretty horrific scene. Equally as grim was the court appearance of three young men who were charged with burglary. There were partners, family and friends packed in the small courtroom, with all of those people impacted by the crash.
I noticed on the court list a curious sounding case (which was set down for Wednesday afternoon): Seed Housing Ltd v Harness Racing New Zealand Ltd.
I looked up Seed Housing, and found out its director was Gary Todd, a Dunedin-based architect.
I contacted HRNZ to ask if this was about Forbury, and I got this reply from Liz Bishop, corporate services general manager:
‘‘It would not be appropriate for us to comment in detail at this point.
However what we can tell you is that there is a hearing to discuss the future of a portion of the Forbury Park site.
It is not, and we must emphasise this, for the bulk of the site, but rather a small portion of it.
HRNZ will comment further once the matter has been settled though the ruling from the court is not expected to be for some weeks, at the very least.’’
I understand once this is resolved, we could expect an announcement concerning Forbury sooner rather than later.
I remember attending the last racing date back in 2021, which seems like a lifetime ago, and wrote about it here.
Here is a key sentence:
"The raceway was built on a reclaimed swamp, and the low-lying area was prone to flooding, most recently in 2015. Industry sources believed the 12-hectare site could fetch upwards of $15m on the open market.
Whatever happens at the site, balancing the needs for housing and the impact of flooding/climate change on that area will be key. I expect we will see a range of interested parties, such as the Dunedin City Council, Ngāi Tahu and Kāinga Ora involved.
Today is not only World Sea Lion Day but also World No Tobacco Day. I don’t know where I’m going with this but I feel it is almost as common to see a sea lion in Dunedin, than a person smoking an actual cigarette in the city.
I asked someone outside court the other day how much a pack was, and they got little change out of two $20 notes.
I was interested to read that between 2018 and 2021, smoking rates fell by 30%, and 40% for wāhine Māori, with vaping cited as one of the main reasons. This is a pretty good read, and compares policy between New Zealand and Australia.
I know more kids are vaping, and I know it is a problem at school (just like smoking was when I was a teen), but we have to celebrate the good news where we can get it. Smoking is dead.
I also read that on Monday it was 10 years to the day that DScene, which began publishing five years’ earlier, ceased publication.
I almost ended up working for them when they were owned by the Mountain Scene, which is now owned by Allied Press. I’ll always remember working at the Otago Daily Times when they launched with a parade of military equipment and dancers, it was really something. They had a few decent yarns, and certainly shook up the media scene in what was effectively a one-horse town.
RIP.
In other news, I was at a cordon today, same offender/same street as earlier in the year, and snapped this pic of a possible cat burglar.
A few weeks ago I reminded you about AudioCulture holding a poll to find out the top New Zealand albums.
Dunedin can claim to have two of those in the top 10: Toy Love’s self-titled album, and The Chills’ Submarine Bells.
Here is the full list, you can add Straitjacket Fits’ Melt, and Dimmer’s I Believe You Are a Star as finalists.
And lastly, please comment where you think this was taken:
In other news, tomorrow my eldest son turns 15, and it feels like a milestone. Seven years earlier, I bet him $100 that he wouldn’t be as tall as me by the time he turns that age. Unless he grows 1cm overnight, I’m in the money.
Have a great week.
A 15yr old growing a cm overnight isn't unheard of Lol! Reminds me of a friend who bet his 15 year old daughter $50, she would'nt be able to give up chocolate for a year. She won, and when he paid up she told him she was going to spend it all on chocolate!
Will watch Forbury with interest.