Having mentioned it in the post on Waikanae’s wonderful new Commuter parking lot (yeah, right), here is a picture of the mobile barber shop which has been allocated a space in the said amenity (cnr of Te Moana & Main Road).  This photo is taken in the area of 76-80 Main Road which, as also mentioned previously, is slated for redevelopment.

For those into classic vehicles, it is a 1960 Bedford J4 truck.

‘Sustainable development’ – a poster we noticed in France where durable means sustainable and both mean something that can last.  The problem is that the meaning in practice has been obscured by its constant use as a buzzword.

This was one of the comments made by the Mayor Ross Church following the decision to scrap the Sustainable Home and Garden Show subsidy.  He says Council staff is regularly out in the community working with groups and individuals about practical ways of playing their part in making Kāpiti sustainable.

“We will continue to have a strong focus on sustainability. We‘re planning a special exhibit at Waitangi Day and will be bringing back an extended Greener Neighbourhoods competition, as well as other things too.”

Presumably the meaning ascribed to the home and garden show is ‘eco-friendly’ but that has become another buzzword too, and we’ve seen that in the propaganda for the Maypole company subdivisions. Groan.

As in all things, it’s “show me, don’t tell me.”  The big disappointment for us as conservationists this year was the relaxing of the rules on native tree protection by the council.

If the council produces a pamphlet showing how citizens can be less wasteful and polluting and includes it with the next rates statement, then it would make amends with disappointed environmentalists.

We observed in an earlier post that retirement villages of the ‘licence to occupy’ type are extremely profitable businesses.

Here, thanks to a reader, is a transcript of Paul Henry’s observations about them on his TV3/Radio Live show of 27 November 2015:

“A lot of these companies are not making a lot of money on their day to day care, most of them make their money, obscene amounts of money, off the backs of these poor people who are encouraged to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying the right to live in these properties — and then do you know what happens? One of them dies and the other one can’t live on their own and can’t shift out because of all kinds of restrictions on selling the property so you’ve got to go to the company to get them to sell the property.

“The worst case scenario — both of them get too sick and can’t afford the hospital care while they are staying in that property.  How do they move out -– you know I’ve heard some true nightmarish stories and that is where most of these — I’m going to use the word ‘evil’ — that is where most of these evil companies are making their money from: these poor people who are effectively being swindled out of their life savings. I think it is diabolical and the lid needs to be lifted on this.”

We well understand and relate to Paul Henry’s feelings.

If you have relatives in one of these establishments who you think are the victims of unscrupulous management, know that retirement villages are subject to both The Retirement Villages Act 2003 and The Retirement Villages Code of Conduct Act 2008. These are administered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, so go there.

We would be very interested in stories that readers have.

I am impressed with the honesty of the articles I read in your blog. As Cr Elliot says, we have an increasing problem with accommodation for some of our elderly residents in Kapiti.

Currently there are 98 over-65’s with health issues and doctor letters who do not have a satisfactory roof over their heads. They are on the crisis housing list for the elderly in our area.

We have to do something about this situation. The building of an “Abbeyfield Home” would be a help. I have raised the issue at every planning meeting of council but we need four other councillors to acknowledge the problem and deal with it. Some of us councillors will raise the problem at the annual plan meetings early next year and, God willing, we will help those less fortunate in their old age who are suffering.

Best wishes for a happy and generous Christmas and New Year.

Cr Dr David Scott, JP

A photo of some of the billboards in the triangle formed by SH1, Ruahine and Rimutaka Streets at the north end of Paraparaumu.

We have commented before about the troublesome precedent set by the Ranford billboard on Te Moana Road near where the Expressway on and off-ramps will be.  It’s one thing to mention community facilities and events; quite another for big remote advertisements for businesses.

We mentioned this earlier in the year during the February by-election, but as the Wellington Regional Council is apparently reviewing bus services, we thought it timely to mention it again.

The areas to the west of SHI and the railway are covered by route 280, but there is no coverage of areas to the east of the railway line (to which we have added a magenta highlight), and these have about 2,000 citizens.  A service covering them should mean fewer need to drive down and try to find a park at the railway station — and thus relieve the shortage, don’t you think Greater Wellington Council?

The issue of Kapiti News from last Wednesday had the above article about Paraparaumu College art students who produced new reproductions of classic grocery items to replace ones which had got rather faded and jaded on the east wall of the Elizabeth Street Dairy (neighbourhood convenience store).

The result is below.

Welcome to Waikanae – oh look, a homeless man by the side of the road.

Picture this: a balmy Friday afternoon, a leisurely trip south down State Highway 1 to Waikanae before the bank closes. Under the big 50 km/h sign, on the wide grass verge to the right, I notice a rubbish-filled shopping trolley and lying in the rose garden, his back propped up by the signpost, legs splayed barely a metre from the traffic, a stocky dusty shabbily dressed man with a sack over his head.

No! This scene is completely out of place. This is not Waikanae, the most beautiful town? It sends shivers down my spine. Should I stop? No, thank goodness a van has pulled over just ahead and the occupants are getting out fast. Someone is assisting him, I hope they are all OK and don’t frighten him onto the road.

Who is he? I don’t know, but I have noticed him in his crude cardboard shelter on the clay bank next to the road just north of the SPCA over the last few weeks. Hubby says the other morning he stopped the State Highway traffic, trucks and all, in both directions shuffling all the way across, leaning on his trolley at 7 am.

Later leaving the shopping centre, I am surprised and deeply shocked to see him still propped up against the sign. This time with his head securely wrapped in a white plastic supermarket bag, not drooping, thank God, but there was no tell-tale flapping of plastic in the breeze. It looked tight. The scene is fleeting, macabre and shockingly third world. The ugly side of life in the beautiful town. This time there is no van in sight and no help either.

I pull over at the nearest safe place, near the SPCA and ring 111. They have already been rung they say, and don’t blame me for not even venturing near him to see if he is breathing. “I think you should get the police to assist the ambulance driver,” I suggest. “I have,” the call centre operator says, “this is the holdup, waiting for the police to come first.”

Saturday afternoon, meeting Mum for a movie back in Waikanae. I shudder as I drive towards the spot, no shopping trolley, no body and just a few scraps of waste cardboard to show he existed. But where is he tonight? In a psyche ward? A police cell? I sincerely hope so because the alternative scenario is not good, released from hospital and told to go, just go, and chances are, there is no free emergency housing available in Kapiti tonight.

According to David Robertson, spokesperson for Citizens Advice Bureau, in Kapiti, they get one request a week and have to resort to putting people and families up in campground cabins, even then for only a few nights at a time. It is 28 years since KCDC last built social housing. Our population has grown and aged. We have considerable waiting lists for our housing stock and 65% of the Kapiti population is predicted to be of pensioner age by 2030.

Cr David Scott and I have tried to convince our colleagues to budget to facilitate any proposal by a private group to construct new pensioner housing. I don’t mean by forking out ratepayer cash either. I propose Council purchase a land package where we can retain and sell off the excess to recover all initial costs.

Through Abbeyfield for example, 27 units could be built, maintained and managed in a secure community at no on going cost to ratepayers. We have tried through the 2014 Annual Plan, the Long Term Plan, the reaction there was to introduce Rateable Unit charges where the owners of any self contained spaces they make available for emergency housing will be charged around $1,000 extra rates pa for their efforts. Needless to say I did not support this. Soon David Scott and I will try again through the 2016 Annual plan.

During the year I attended an Older Persons Council day-conference on Aged Cities. We enjoyed inspiring speakers, some in their nineties. It prompted me later in the day, to bring up the plight of Kapiti’s elderly homeless in council. Some of the reaction shocked me.

Cr Michael Scott felt that it was their own fault for anyone to be caught out homeless in their old age, and those who had lost their life’s savings through New Zealand’s sad history of collapsed Investment Companies were just too greedy in the first place. Then he and the Mayor asked what the pension was for singles or couples; the Mayor felt that $300 a week tax-free was heaps and they should think themselves lucky.

Well I don’t. I do not feel that Council can say we are committed to caring for the whole community until we stop ignoring those who cant afford to sell up the family home and invest in our flash retirement villages in their old age. What message is Council giving them, that they are too poor for Beautiful Waikanae or Kapiti? To go live elsewhere?

No, and I intend to keep asking for more housing.

Written by Councillor Jackie Elliott – jackie.elliott@kapiti.govt.nz

On the front page of this week’s Kapiti Observer there is an article headed “Babies, Elderly living in cars”.

On Wednesday 9 December at 7:30 pm

Raumati South Memorial Hall, Tennis Court Road

A reader has pointed this out; the KCDC decided on Thursday to spend the money on a ‘wings and wheels’ event instead.

Cancelling the subsidy for the former was one of the proposals mentioned in the Long Term Plan consultation brochure earlier this year and we agreed; it is a commercial event and ‘sustainable’ has become a general buzzword to make anything sound better these days.

But Wings and Wheels instead?  Clearly, Mr Dougherty isn’t serious about saving money.

(Thanks, Bernie)