Tasman Mayor Tim King welcomes the ‘Streets for People’ funding announcement

 

Tasman Mayor Tim King

“Richmond and Māpua to benefit from funding stimulus for Walking and Cycling”

Major road safety improvements are on the way for Richmond and Māpua with a significant funding boost announced by Waka Kotahi today. (Tuesday 06 September)  

Richmond is to get $2.4 million, while $840,000 has been earmarked for Māpua to rapidly implement the beginnings of a complete network of safe walking and cycling spaces in our streets, which is a cornerstone of Tasman District Council’s Walking and Cycling Strategy. 

Street art from Murchison, Tasman

Tasman Mayor Tim King welcomes the ‘Streets for People’ funding announcement and says it’s great news. 

“We appreciate that Waka Kotahi has included funding for Tasman in this programme” 

He says, “For many years our Council, and the wider local government sector, have been telling the Government and Waka Kotahi that the biggest limitation on making improvements to our road network is the Councils, and ratepayers, ability to pay for it – so to have them listen and now provide substantial funding and support is welcome.” 

Over the next two years the Council will create and improve spaces for safer cycling on Salisbury Road, Wensley Road, Queen Street, Hill Street, Champion Road, and on Aranui Road in Māpua, linking places where people live with schools, commercial centres and the wider existing network of cycle trails. 

The last New Zealand Household Travel Survey in 2018 showed nearly a third of all car trips are less than 2-kilometres, while earlier research by the Ministry of Transport showed that the percentage of primary school students walking or cycling to school has dropped from 54-percent in the late 1980s to 34-percent in 2015, reflecting the concerns people have about safety on our streets. 

Tasman District Council Transportation Manager Jamie McPherson says "the 2018 Census showed that in Tasman’s urban areas, about 19-percent of trips to work and school were made by walking or cycling - our strategy aims to increase this to 40-percent by 2030." 

 “Making it easier for our people to get around town without having to drive a vehicle to feel safe, is essential to meet our safety, livability and emissions goals while freeing up road space for our essential vehicles like freight and trades.” 

McPherson says, “We’re disappointed that our Motueka project was not funded in this round of 'Streets for People', but we are actively chasing another opportunity to gain funding through a central government Carbon Emission Reduction Fund, also known as ‘Transport Choices’”.  

He expects to hear whether that is successful by November 2022. 

Editors comment:

The Hill Street Community will be pleased if the intersection between Hill Street and Queen Street is upgraded for Pedestrians and Cycling in this round of funding.

Tasman District Council

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Max Verstappen says Dutch GP win was “extra rewarding”

Max Verstappen

 

Max Verstappen says Dutch GP win was “extra rewarding”

Max Verstappen said that his victory in the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix was made sweeter given the multitude of challenges he had to overcome on the way to his fourth-straight win. 

The Driver of the Day took pole position by just 0.021s over Charles Leclerc but had to contend with Mercedes, who threatened with their superior pace on hard compounds. The Silver Arrows were blunted by a Virtual Safety Car, before Lewis Hamilton lost the lead to Verstappen on the late Safety Car restart – the Mercedes driver ending the race on a set of mediums while Verstappen opted to switch to soft compounds.

“Yes, it was not a straightforward race, so I think it’s extra rewarding to win the race,” said the Dutchman. “We couldn’t really do our preferred strategy to the end. That made it a little bit more difficult for us up until the last Safety Car, because I think we were just a bit more competitive on the softer compounds. But then of course with that late Safety Car we could switch back to the preferred tyre, the soft one, and could get back into the lead.

“It was just difficult,” he continued. “I think I gave my opinions about what I wanted with tyres, like I said ‘don’t use the hard tyre’, but we had to. Because the VSC, it came out a bit unfortunate, then we went out and we were clearly lacking a bit of pace on that hard compound compared to the Mercedes on the medium."

The crowd in Holland erupt with joy when Max wins the race

“The Safety Car came out and then there’s no way you can stay out on the hard tyre. We had to box, I didn’t request it – you have to trust your team as well to make the right calls and they did…”

Sergio Perez finished sixth but was promoted to fifth after Carlos Sainz took a five-second penalty. The Mexican, who also finished the race on medium tyres, expressed his surprise that Mercedes were able to find pace on the hard tyres as Hamilton ended up fourth and George Russell second.

“I think the Mercedes were a step faster than us today. Very surprised that they managed to do the one-stop. They seemed to be really good on their tyres,” said Perez. “At the restart, I think being on the medium [tyre] did hurt us a bit on the restart because it was really difficult to get temperature there. Unfortunately, that was the case."

“It was a tricky, tricky day. Tricky afternoon all in all. But we managed to minimise the damage, we saved some points and on to Monza.”

Verstappen holds a 109-point lead over Charles Leclerc and Perez going into the 2022 Italian Grand Prix, with Red Bull 135 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

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Verstappen beats Leclerc to Zandvoort pole by 0.021s

Max Verstappen took pole position for the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc missing out by 0.021s in a thrilling Zandvoort contest. 

Verstappen logged a lap of 1m 10.342s in Q3 just before team mate Sergio Perez, fifth, spun at Turn 13 to bring out a yellow flag and prevent anyone else from beating the Dutchman’s time. Leclerc ended up 0.021s off the home favourite in P2, while Q2 leader Carlos Sainz qualified P3 – under a tenth off pole.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on the second row in P4, the Mercedes driver unable to improve late in Q3, while team mate George Russell settled for sixth behind Perez.

Lando Norris qualified seventh, with Mick Schumacher a surprise eighth and Yuki Tsunoda an equally surprising ninth. Lance Stroll made it to Q3 but a technical issue saw him confined to the garage and settle for 10th on the grid for Aston Martin.

FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX 2022

Qualifying results

POSITION	TIME
1 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing	1:10.342
2 Charles LECLERC Ferrari	1:10.363
3 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari	1:10.434
4 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes	1:10.648
5 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing	1:11.077

Pierre Gasly qualified 11th ahead of compatriot Esteban Ocon, while Fernando Alonso finished 13th in Q2 as neither Alpine made it to the top 10 shootout. Zhou Guanyu took P14, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon.

Valtteri Bottas was knocked out in P16 as his Alfa Romeo team mate Zhou made it through to Q2. Haas’s Kevin Magnussen’s track limits infringement saw him finish 17th, ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel – who took P19 having run into the gravel on his final flying lap – and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi backing up the pack.

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The West is racing to stop Ukraine's guns falling silent

President Biden, pictured visiting the Javelin assembly line in Alabama, has been forced to increase production CREDIT: JONATHAN ERNST/ REUTERS

Nato stockpiles were depleted to arm Kyiv – but the defence industry must ramp up
production once more

The essence of Ukraine’s war is its dependence on the West for the influx of weapons, military vehicles and ammunition that has kept its military able to confront the Russian invaders.

The supply lifeline meant Russia’s initial blitzkrieg-style rush of infantry, armour, artillery and supporting air strikes mostly ground to a halt amid mounting casualties. The invaders inch forwards, consolidating and deepening their hold on conquered Ukrainian territory.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s defenders fiercely contest every street corner, road junction and field - and have launched an offensive of their own to reclaim the occupied city of Kherson.

Their ability to continue fighting back rests on the steady supply of Western arms, ammunition and materiel.

Yet a problem has begun to emerge which threatens that steady supply. Most Western weaponry supplied to Ukraine has either come from ready-use war stockpiles or from long term stores of vehicles and materiel that is obsolete by NATO standards. After six months of full intensity war fighting - and with winter on the horizon - those stocks are starting to run low.

Supply chain crisis

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal reported that much American military aid “has come directly from US inventory, depleting stockpiles intended for unexpected threats”. 

An unnamed US defence official told the newspaper that reserves of 155mm artillery shells were running “uncomfortably low” after the supply of 806,000 rounds to Ukraine. Production, inevitably, now needs to rise. 

Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, added: “There are some problems you can buy your way out of. This is one of them.” 

The military-industrial complex – Dwight Eisenhower’s description of the manufacturers and suppliers to the world’s armed forces – must step up to the mark. A debate is now under way between Nato governments, their own militaries and their treasuries about not only the quantity of materiel they want to supply to Ukraine, but the knock-on effect on their own nations of emptying their stockpiles. 

Trevor Taylor, a research fellow from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), says the biggest challenge for Ukraine’s Western supporters is placing fresh contracts with defence suppliers, especially as Ukraine starts mounting full-scale counterattacks to regain lost territory. 

“Offensive actions require more munitions and effort than do defensive actions,” says Taylor. 

“But the military intent, what they can realistically think about mounting, is a function of the supplies they can get from outside.” 

Two key factors for keeping a military offensive going are the rate at which army units consume ammunition and the speed with which their comrades can resupply them. 

Ukraine’s artillery regiments are firing around 6,000 shells a day, according to estimates from Rusi. Even the simplest artillery ammunition needs time to make, and lead times for the increasingly complex weapon systems employed by modern militaries make forward planning to head off a supply crisis ever more important. 

Nicholas Drummond, a defence industry analyst and former British Army officer, thinks part of the supply problem lies with politicians and generals who embraced post-Cold War peace dividend-driven thinking for far too long. 

“Essentially, the Russo-Ukrainian war has exposed years of under-investment across many areas of defence, but particularly in war stocks of ammunition,” he says. 

Telegraph

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FONTERRA HELPING RURAL FAMILIES

FONTERRA AND RURAL SUPPORT TRUST JOIN FORCES TO IMPROVE WELLBEING SUPPORT FOR 

RURAL FAMILIES

Fonterra and the Rural Support Trust (RST) are today proud to announce a three-year partnership to support rural New Zealanders by improving access to wellbeing and resilience services for farming families who are doing it tough.

 

Earning a living from the land comes with a unique set of challenges and research shows that a significant proportion of New Zealand farmers neglect their own wellbeing. The first priority for the partnership is to develop a rural specific national strategy, which is expected to be in place early next year.

 

Richard Allen, Group Director Farm Source, says, “For generations the RST has been standing by rural communities and have a long history of showing up and helping when times are tough. Fonterra has worked successfully with the RST for some time but more action is needed and this new partnership will help strengthen our wellbeing support throughout the country.”

 

“Developing a national, long-term strategy with clear objectives and actions that address mental health and other rural challenges is simply the right thing to do.

 

“Farming is an animal and produce business, but it’s also very much a human business. It’s right to show up for communities during events and emergencies, but the partnership also recognises an ongoing need for support of, and commitment to, New Zealand communities.”

 

Farming is right up there when it comes to the most rewarding jobs in the world, but it can also be one of the most stressful and demanding. According to 2020 research from DairyNZ, 62% of dairy farmers said they or someone on their farm experienced mental health issues in the previous 12 months.

Neil Bateup, Chair of the National Council of RSTs, says, “Kiwi farmers and growers run pretty special businesses, but they’re businesses that are vulnerable to a bunch of significant external factors – many of which are out of their control. A good example is the extreme weather and flooding experienced across parts of New Zealand recently. Farmers are also feeling increasing pressures due to things like rising on-farm costs, the labour pinch and increasing compliance obligations.

 

“We’ve come a long way in the last decade or so, in that there’s more recognition that mind health is just as important as physical wellbeing, but we know there’s still a lot of work to do in this area.”

 

Some examples of Fonterra and RST working together:

• Earlier this year Fonterra was one of the sponsors of Matt Chisholm’s nationwide Time Out Tour for RST. Matt is an Ambassador for RST and talked to rural communities about mental wellness, resilience, his own struggles and what he did to help overcome them. (www.rural-support.org.nz/Time-Out-Tour).

• In August 2021, a Fonterra and RST ‘Good Together’ Rugby Team played the Parliament Rugby Team to help raise more than $100,000 for the RST to help flood-affected South Island farmers.

• Farm Source Charitable Giving initiative – allows farmers to donate their Farm Source Rewards Dollars to three charities, including the Rural Support Trust.

• Fonterra’s Christmas Charitable Giving initiative – allows employees to donate cash to one of three charities, including the Rural Support Trust.

 

Fonterra extends Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to Fonterra farmers indefinitely

Last year, during COVID, Fonterra extended its Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to Co-op farmers. Fonterra has now extended this offering indefinitely.

 

EAP is a professional and confidential counselling service provided by an independent company, EAP Services. Fonterra funds the service for employees (and now farmers) to help those who are experiencing any personal or work-related difficulties.

Mental wellbeing on farm can be testing at this time of year and with the added uncertainties of weather events it gets tough. If any Fonterra farmers are finding things difficult or would just like to talk things through with someone, they can take a look at our EAP offering. Contact details for EAP and other tips and advice that can help improve mental wellbeing are available to Fonterra farmers via the Health and Wellbeing portal on the Farm Source website (https://nzfarmsource.co.nz/business/my-business/health-and-wellbeing).

Where to get help:
Rural Support Trust: 0800 787 254
Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) 
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 (available 24/7)
Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7)
Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (12pm to 11pm)
Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)
Anxiety helpline: 0800 269 4389 (0800 ANXIETY) (available 

24/7)
Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111

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WINTER OF RECORD BREAKING RAIN WITH BACKGROUND OF INCREASED TEMPERATURE

 

MetService News Release

The news cycle has been full of record wet months, slips, road closures and flooding events these past three months. MetService has crunched some of the rainfall tallies and numerous locations around the country have broken rainfall records for winter. As with any extended period of weather there are always many factors at play but read on to learn what has influenced our rainfall and who broke records. 

It may come as no surprise that our station at Nelson Airport decimated its previous winter record of 570mm set in 1970. They ticked up 701mm and exceeded their winter average rainfall in over four consecutive days in August alone (17th – 20th). 

Other central areas also broke winter records: Blenheim Airport, Wellington Airport, Paraparaumu Airport, Levin and our station in Kelburn (which has observations back to 1928). 

Moving north; Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Taupō and Rotorua airports all hit their wettest winters on record. Tauranga, Kaitaia and Auckland airports came in second wettest, with Auckland missing out on their wettest winter by just a couple of mm. 

It wasn’t just northern regions of the South Island that were unusually wet; Christchurch, Timaru, Wanaka, and Hokitika airports all set new winter records, with Hokitika recording a whopping 1142mm – more than 400mm above their winter average. 

But why have we seen so many records fall – what brought the rain? 

All winter we have been flirting with a global climate system called La Niña. The key message for New Zealand is that when La Niña is active, there is an increased frequency of rain-bringing weather systems approaching from the north. 

In addition to La Niña, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) was present throughout winter, but should ease over the summer months. When this occurs alongside La Niña, it further increases the potential of northerly rainfall events over Aotearoa. 

The two climate drivers above work in tandem to increase the chances of drenching systems approaching from the north and we saw several heavy rain events which originated in the Tasman Sea, or the warm waters in the Pacific Ocean north of Northland, tracking south and dumping their rain out over New Zealand. 

To make matters worse there has been anomalous high pressure this season east of New Zealand. This has been slowing the departure of weather systems away from New Zealand – usually, lows quickly cross New Zealand and move eastward, caught up in the overall westerly atmospheric flow. With stubborn highs east of New Zealand, incoming weather systems have been unable to freely depart our shores, and have ended up lingering, delivering prolonged rainfall to Aotearoa. 

Lastly, to address the elephant in the room - the background increase in temperature due to climate change. Warmer air promotes evaporation and can transport more water vapour around the globe. Water vapour is fuel for rain. This means when the atmosphere is warmer, it has the potential to rain more heavily than a cooler atmosphere. Once again, New Zealand has had a very warm winter. 

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GNS Science Response Team for Nelson Tasman and Marlborough Regions

Article just Published Today from 

Landslide Duty Officer EQC

Nelson, Tasman Landslide 

Response

Published: Fri Sep 2 2022 12:00 AM

Landslide Duty Officer EQC

Hundreds of damaging landslides have been reported across the country following prolonged rainfall last week. The impacts of this event have been most severe in the Nelson Tasman and Marlborough region. As the scale of damage in the Nelson Tasman Regions began to emerge, a landslide event response team from GNS Science was deployed to Nelson.

Landslide News. Photo EQC

Why so many landslides?

Between the 17 and 22 of August, large areas in New Zealand were hit with prolonged and heavy rainfall. The top of the South Island experienced up to 1m of rain in just four days, and large areas in the Nelson Tasman districts experienced rainfall totals with annual return intervals of >120 yrs. In some areas, such as the Rai Valley and Kahurangi National Park, these return periods were well over 250 yrs.

These storms have occurred at the end of a long, wet, winter, meaning that much of this rain has fallen onto already saturated ground making it more susceptible to land sliding. Widespread land sliding has been observed in farmland, forestry, regenerating native bush and scrub, and residential areas.

Our Response

The landslide event response team was deployed to Nelson in the first available fine weather window, forecast for Monday and Tuesday (22 & 23 of August). The team spent over five hours in the air, documenting more than 250 of the most critical landslides, and capturing photographs of thousands more. Observations from the initial monitoring and aerial surveys were made available to local geotechnical consultants, Nelson City Council contractors, and Toitū Te Whenua LINZ to aid in the clean-up efforts, plan additional data capture, and assess the safety of the most critical sites.

Widespread land sliding in farmland just outside of Atawhai. Photo thanks to EQC

While the ground remains wet and fresh cracking continues to allow rainfall to flow into unstable slopes, it’s likely that many landslides will continue to cause problems over the coming weeks. The initial response phase of GNS Science activities is expected to be completed with an additional aerial survey led by Marlborough District Council as soon as the weather allows. However, that’s far from the end of the job.

GNS will continue to provide data on the most critical sites over the coming weeks, while detailed mapping of landslide impacts, and rainfall patterns will be completed over the next months. While data from these unique events will be used to aid in immediate response activities, it is also critical for our future planning as well as to develop models that can be used to better predict the impacts of future weather events.

The coastal road from Wainui Bay to Tata Beach was impacted by several slips. Photo Thanks EQC

Been impacted? What can you do?

If you’ve been evacuated, continue to stay at your safe location until you have been given the all-clear to return home.

If you notice something different about your home, for example, the doors and windows don’t close, cracks have appeared in the cladding and/or on paved surfaces, or if you observe changes to the hills immediately above or in the ground around your property (new cracks appearing, bulging ground etc.) you should self-evacuate to a safe location and let the council know.

Follow local emergency management advice to keep you and your whānau safe.

Helpful links for current information:

National Emergency Management Agency’s emergency info page.

Nelson City Council’s emergency info page.

West Coast Emergency Management Facebook page.

Marlborough District Council Facebook page.

Our thoughts are with all of you impacted by landslides and to those helping, stay safe.

A landslide may be triggered by heavy rain or earthquakes, with homes near hills or steep slopes most at risk. If you live near a hill or steep slope, watch out for cracks or movement that could be a warning sign. Follow Civil Defence’s advice on what warning signs to look out for, so you can act quickly if you see them.

Toka Tū Ake EQC has information on how to get your home, apartment, or rental prepared for a natural disaster.

Attributable to: Kerry Leith, Landslide Duty Officer

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