The granting of a Resource Consent by Kāpiti Coast District Council for the plan to redevelop Mahara Gallery is a major step towards realizing the dream of creating a gallery that can accept the gift of the Field Collection and be a better district gallery for Kāpiti.

It follows agreement between the partners in the project – the Council, the Mahara Gallery Trust Board and the Field Collection Trust – on the project design. It has enabled the Gallery to submit funding applications to the Lottery Grants Board. With the design settled and Resource Consent granted, the Mahara Board is in a position to progress its own fund-raising.

The exhibitions by Kirsty Gardiner: Remnants, Remains and Gillian Cronin: Through Female Eyes, were very well received. The new exhibitions of Kapanui school children’s work in He whenua ora, Living Land, and Robyn Kahukiwa’s book illustrations Girls; Boys; were opened with much joy and kapahaka in the newly upgraded Mahara Place on September 20. Huge thank you to the wonderful Ngā Manu staff and their board for this ongoing partnership and the Philipp Family Foundation for their great support. These exhibitions are joined by four beautiful ‘Kāpiti heartstrings’ comprising hundreds of fabric hearts made by people across Kāpiti and around the world to send to Al-Noor Mosque and Linwood Mosque in Christchurch. Thank you to Irma Huth for sharing this special project with Kāpiti people.

Artists based in Kāpiti and Horowhenua are invited to send your work in for the Mahara Arts Review closing on October 13. Thank you to art award sponsors John Mowbray, Jean Fleming, Barry Herbert, Jane Hyder, Kāpiti Signs, Picture Perfect Framing, Kāpiti Coffee Company and guest selectors Jim Gorman and Vicki Robson. This will be a great way to kick off the Kāpiti Arts Trail in Mahara Place on Saturday 2nd November, hope to see you there!

Janet Bayly,
Director

EXHIBITIONS
He Whenua Ora, Living Land; Kapanui School children’s creations. In partnership with Ngā Manu Nature Reserve, kindly supported by the Philipp Family Foundation.
Girls; Boys, book illustrations by Robyn Kahukiwa in newSPACE.
Kāpiti Heartstrings [For Christchurch]

Until 27 October

Mahara Arts Review. With arts awards sponsored by John Mowbray, Jean Fleming, Barry Herbert, Jane Hyder, Kāpiti Signs, Picture Perfect Framing, Kāpiti Coffee Company.

2nd November – 8 December

Michelle Walton (formerly Michelle Backhouse) In One Piece.
newSPACE: Mahara marks 25 years. Fay Beyer, Robin Rogerson, Mary Zohrab, and Bob Gibbs. 15 December – 2 February 2019

EVENTS

Submission week for Mahara Arts Review
Tuesday 8 – Sunday 13 October
There are no restrictions on age, theme or media. Work should be no larger than 1 metre in any direction or weigh more than 20 kg, and have been made in the last year. Collect an entry form from the gallery or inquire to info@maharagallery.org.nz.

Two puppet plays developed and performed by Anna Bailey, String Bean Puppets

The Runaway Sheep 10.30 — 11 am
The Monster in the gallery 11.30 — 12 noon

Wednesday 9 October, entry free

Poets reading in the gallery for He Whenua Ora, Living Land. Julie Burns, Mary Cresswell, Patricia Donaldson, Gill Ward, Angela Wright and children from Kapanui School.

Saturday 19 October, 2.30 — 3.30, entry free

Opening for Mahara Arts Review. 6 pm Saturday 2 November. The exhibition will run from 10 am – 4 pm on Saturday 2 & 9 November, and Sundays 3 & 10 November, as part of the Kāpiti Arts Trail.

Friends of Mahara. Sunday 17 November, 4 – 5.30pm
Join Convenor Julie Sperring and other invitees who will discuss an artwork that has special significance for them, starting with wine, nibbles and social get-together at 4pm.

Opening for Michelle Walton, In One Piece, and Mahara marks 25 years with Fay Bresolin, Robin Rogerson, Mary Zohrab, and Bob Gibbs. Saturday 14 December, 5 pm

The expected date of publication is August 2020.  The editors seek submissions in fiction and nonfiction, poetry and visual art. Submissions are open through 31 October 2019. Please read the description and send your submission to:

wearenzanthology[at]gmail[dot]com

About the book

This anthology of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and visual art celebrates the voices, experiences and ethnicities that form contemporary New Zealand. Its editors are Michelle Elvy, Paula Morris, and James Norcliffe.

At its heart lies the statement by PM Jacinda Ardern after the March Christchurch attacks: ‘Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it… we will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack.’

The editors invite submissions of previously unpublished work – prose, poetry and visual art – that explores, investigates or interrogates life in contemporary New Zealand. We’re eager to hear from a range of voices and experiences from around the country. [We assume anything critical of the PM or other politicians won’t make it. — Eds]

Please note that all new work for this anthology is sought.

How to submit

There is no minimum word limit for written work (prose poetry, poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction, etc.); the maximum limit for written submissions (including essays) is 5,000 words.

Submit visual art as a .jpeg or .pdf file for review.

Submit up to three pieces by 31 October 2019. Send as e-mail attachments to:

wearenzanthology[at]gmail[dot]com

“Commies love concrete.” –travel writer Bill Bryson (in reference to Eastern Europe)

From the amount of it that has been poured in Waikanae over the last year, it’s apparent that the KCDC loves it, too.

Although the Commies may have loved concrete, they were less enthusiastic about maintaining it — decaying buildings, walls and paving were an ubiquitous sight there (aging paving stones at odd angles were also a significant pedestrian safety hazard).  Fortunately, the KCDC will respond to requests for repairs.

But the issue of whether it is an appealing material in the first place arises. There are ways in which its appearance can be improved, including staining, painting, patterns, friezes, embedded glitter, decorative stones, glow in the dark chips, tiles, and mosaics.

The quadrangle in Mahara Place following the makeover has plenty of concrete.  And it has a reasonable amount of artificial grass. It also has some new seats (which are OK to sit on, although not really as comfortable as the existing seats), large planter boxes (made of concrete) and smallish areas that can best be described as mini stages.  The sculpture garden and the children’s playground on the south side of it are unchanged.

The quadrangle now features a scrawny Nikau palm and a puny Puriri tree which are a lot smaller than the Phoenix palms that were removed. But in the longer term they will grow to a reasonable size.

There are a lot of suggestions that were made by readers of the Destination Waikanae FB page, some of which were heeded, and others of which were ignored.  You can see a selection of these in this post from September 2017.  There have been a few others that we won’t repeat.

Comment by Margaret Stevenson-Wright

In my view the redevelopment of Mahara Place has delivered an expensive [$1.06 million] and lacklustre tiny theme park.

We may not have a Hundertwasser toilet, but we assuredly have ‘artisan power’ on the Coast that should have had a leading role in this redevelopment.

My questions in terms of the scope of any ‘consultation’ it had are the degree to which the:

• Development process included a process evaluation for safe design
• Local artisans whose talents could have made this a space that embedded local pride and attracted out Kapiti visitors.

The council indicated some sort of celebration might be organised now that everything that was intended has now been done.  The Spring Market next month, however, will be a good test of popular appeal.

Kapiti is a constituent member of the Greater Wellington Regional Council and although it doesn’t receive as much attention as the KCDC does, it is nevertheless important as among other things it is responsible for all public transport, it runs certain parks, including the Queen Elizabeth Park between Paekakariki and Raumati, and looks after the Otaki and Waikanae rivers.

As readers know, the holder of the Kapiti seat on the GWRC between 2007 and 2016 was Nigel Wilson; since then it has been held by Penny Gaylor who is facing a strong challenge from Paraparaumu resident Neil MacKay. We had a long chat with him on Tuesday.

Neil was born in Pahiatua on the other side of the Tararua Range. As the surname suggests he is of Scottish descent and has lived in Glasgow, although the family’s origin is much further north of there.

He has lived on the Kapiti Coast with his family for over 30 years. In that time he has worked as Chief Executive of Industry NZ (the Central Government Economic Development Agency), and locally as Chair of Electra Ltd (electricity lines and assets), other chief executive roles in industries including transport, water security and new technology companies, and Chair of the Kapiti Aquatic Centre Trust. It was a disappointment for him that a second pool was not built to Olympic size, along with the 25-metre pool (half the Olympic length.)  However,  the 25 metre pool has the feature of an adjustable floor level for different uses.

On GWRC issues, Neil says that the problems with Bus Routing and Timetable changes that have plagued Wellington City need to be sorted promptly.  The existing bus drivers were not consulted about the changes and now there are major problems with staff shortages which have seen frequent service cancellations.

He likes the proposal we have repeatedly made since 2015 for a mix of bus shelters of the stock design and some creative/artistic designed ones to have a positive impact on our streets and neighbourhoods.

In regard to the highly controversial 1080 poison he prefers growth and development of the trapping industry. “There are too many risks and unintended consequences using 1080.”

He established Greenchip, a small business that has involvement with new technologies including metal and ceramic injection moulding of various products, the development of waste-to-value streams technology… the enterprise has been conducting trials using a pilot plant taking fowl manure and dairy effluent, producing methane for heating and cooling on site, liquor and digestate (manure) for potting mix and fertiliser, using on site or to be sold. The business is still working on the economics and also has an interest in water security — monitoring the quality and waste water treatment.

If successful in the election, Neil says he will remain a board member, but not have day to day involvement.

On the vexatious topic of Rates increases with no improved services, Neil says any talk of a 15% hike for Kapiti people is completely unacceptable.

“The fact is Kapiti is already getting slugged by regional rates. Aside from the Wairarapa, Kapiti has been hit with the highest average regional rate increase this year and also the highest rate increase for businesses at 10.3%. There has not been anywhere near enough regional spending in the last three years to justify that increase and we have been poorly represented.

“The public of Kapiti have been telling me they want more advocacy and more transparency and if elected I will bring both of those to the regional table.

“I’m not a fan of leaks that aren’t backed by facts and speculation can be dangerous. However, this shows a failure of the governance process and political transparency is essential,” he says.

One of the major reasons for his candidacy has been the frequently voiced complaint that since 2016, the incumbent Penny Gaylor has little to show from her 3 year term, and rarely appears at council or community board meetings in contrast to Nigel Wilson who made a point of doing this. 

Neil says that at a meet the candidates event, a member of the public specifically asked Penny Gaylor whether the disastrous Bus Network revamp would cost Kapiti Coast ratepayers money. “The audience was assured the fiasco would not cost KCDC ratepayers money to fix. This was clearly misleading at best and we deserve better.”

He wants improved train services also, and needless to say is a strong supporter of extending electric commuter trains (not hybrid electric-diesel ones that have been mentioned) north of Waikanae at least to Otaki.

Getting the electric trains to go further than Waikanae at least to Otaki is something Neil wants to advance, and although Transmission Gully will in theory speed up commuting time, it is going to create congestion in Wellington, as traffic arriving there will face the existing infrastructure; commuter trains will be better for a lot of people.

This picture was taken a few years ago at a friend’s house in the Hollywood Hills with the garage door decorated to look like bookshelves. Nigel says he likes libraries — and his campaign photo (see earlier) shows him in front of his own library in Waikanae.

We like books too, and our own library has as many books as what are now on display in the Waikanae ‘pop-up’ library.

The ideal answer is to bowl the old Waikanae library building (which wasn’t originally intended for that purpose) and build an imaginative new one.  Earlier in the year we posted pictures of some notable libraries in other countries. They aren’t just there for lending books, but serve other community roles too.

Abridged from a group e-mail to KCDC candidates

I am writing on behalf of the “Finish Our Road” (www.for.org.nz) group that is seeking to have south on and off slip lanes added to facilitate further local connectivity to the Expressway.

There is substantial community support, including the Chamber of Commerce, we note in a recent request of the Chamber for candidates to express their view on this.

An analysis of 1,300 who have signed our Petition is as below:

Paekakariki to Waikanae River     12%

Waikanae                                          33%

Peka Peka                                            9%

Te Hapua to Otaki River                 32%

Otaki                                                     4%

Other areas                                       10%

A major issue is that there are a significant number of inadequacies with the NZTA Business Case used to make the decision not to proceed. A number of these are documented on our website; there are, however, two fundamental ones:

• The investment objectives on which the decision was based are limited to satisfaction and access for Peka Peka and Te Horo communities. However perhaps the most significant impact will be 2,300 trips per day [Information from the NZTA Business Case documentation] traversing the residential streets of Waikanae, rather than using a purpose built safer expressway; and
• The cost NZTA placed against the two Slip Lanes required, is around 1/20th of the total cost of the PP2O Expressway, which includes the Otaki River bridge and multiple other bridges.

The cost set against these two Slip Lanes simply isn’t believable.

NZTA own almost all the land required, [NZTA determination] and we understand that existing use Consents can be implemented.

–Ian Jensen, 182 Te Hapua Road, 0274 436517 ; 06 3643263

This change is to suit those who work elsewhere during weekdays, the hours remain 11:30 a.m. — 2.30 p.m.

Last Friday, candidates for other seats came along — in the picture can be seen Murray Forsdyke (Districtwide) and Neil MacKay (GWRC candidate for Kapiti).

Thanks for your query.  LGNZ does not usually comment on the actions of individual councils.  These are matters that local residents are in a better position than us to pass judgement.  In relation to your second question we are not aware of any other councils in New Zealand that invest in derivatives.

Regards

Dr Mike Reid, Principal Policy Advisor, Local Government New Zealand