30.07.2018 Views

Nor'West News: July 31, 2018

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

NOR’WEST NEWS Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />

Tuesday <strong>July</strong> <strong>31</strong> <strong>2018</strong> 5<br />

Free firewood warms Shirley families<br />

Community<br />

helps mum<br />

through winter<br />

• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding<br />

BEING THE sole bread-winner<br />

in a household with three<br />

children hasn’t been an easy road<br />

for Shirley mother Rachel Curry.<br />

The oil heater she uses<br />

to warm her home burns<br />

through a “staggering” amount<br />

of electricity and recently<br />

contributed to a $700 power bill<br />

for one month. “I had the oil<br />

heater on 24/7 for a month and<br />

had no firewood and had to keep<br />

the family warm,” Miss Curry<br />

said. The previous month was<br />

between $400 and $500.<br />

But paying the bills has been<br />

made a little easier for the<br />

commercial cleaner. Her family<br />

is one of 18 in the Shirley area to<br />

receive free firewood.<br />

The firewood deliveries were<br />

part of a large community effort<br />

to help families struggling to<br />

keep their homes warm.<br />

As well as having the stress<br />

of heating her home taken<br />

away, Fire and Emergency New<br />

Zealand has undertaken a safety<br />

check of Miss Curry’s home and<br />

installed fire alarms.<br />

Said Miss Curry: “I am just<br />

grateful there are these community<br />

groups that do go out of<br />

their way and support each other<br />

. . . we have had some cold days<br />

with cold morning frosts so it<br />

has been really helpful for us,”<br />

she said.<br />

It comes as a Salvation Army<br />

survey showed almost half of its<br />

respondents said they had gone<br />

without heating because of the<br />

cost over the past year.<br />

More than 50 people and various<br />

organisations were involved<br />

in the firewood initiative, including<br />

the Department of Corrections,<br />

Te Puna Oraka, the Shirley<br />

Community Trust, city council<br />

and Fire and Emergency New<br />

Zealand.<br />

Mairehau’s Neighbourhood<br />

Trust, the Delta Community<br />

HAPPY HOME: Malachy Curry, 6, helps his mum Rachel light a fire with the free firewood<br />

delivered to Shirley families. ​<br />

Support Trust, Shirley Rugby<br />

Football Club, Shirley Intermediate<br />

School, C3 Church, Housing<br />

New Zealand, the Helen Anderson<br />

Trust, New Brighton Volunteer<br />

Fire Brigade, New Zealand<br />

Army and St Johns Church<br />

also contributed to helping the<br />

families.<br />

The wood was sourced by the<br />

Department of Corrections,<br />

which had old pallets to get rid<br />

of.<br />

Community activator Steve<br />

Jones-Poole, who orchestrated<br />

the firewood project, said it was a<br />

community project.<br />

He said some of the people<br />

who received firewood also<br />

helped deliver firewood to<br />

others. The community organisations<br />

selected families to<br />

donate the firewood to based on<br />

information from social service<br />

providers in the area.<br />

Mr Jones-Poole said he had<br />

heard of some families heating<br />

their homes using an oven, while<br />

others were using small heaters<br />

which could cost up to $600 a<br />

month to operate.<br />

“Of course, the bigger picture<br />

around it is you have got the<br />

heating for the homes which is<br />

good for them but the bigger<br />

thing was the people coming<br />

together,” he said.<br />

Mr Jones-Poole met with<br />

families and Te Puna Oraka<br />

yesterday to work on a long-term<br />

solution to help families in need<br />

to collect firewood over the year.<br />

CHARITY: More than<br />

50 people and several<br />

organisations helped to<br />

deliver firewood to families<br />

in Shirley.<br />

Local<br />

<strong>News</strong><br />

Now<br />

Fire rages, homes at risk<br />

High Court<br />

date set<br />

in bid<br />

to stop<br />

Belfast water<br />

consents<br />

A PRELIMINARY hearing in<br />

the High Court on October<br />

2 is set to address a water<br />

action group’s bid to stop two<br />

companies taking water from<br />

sites in Belfast then selling it<br />

overseas.<br />

Aotearoa Water Action is<br />

contesting Environment Canterbury’s<br />

decision to grant resource<br />

consents to bottling companies<br />

Cloud Ocean Water and Rapaki<br />

Natural Resources.<br />

AWA opposes an argument<br />

from the bottling companies<br />

that they did not need new consents<br />

to take the water, which<br />

could see up to 24 million litres<br />

a day removed.<br />

The consents are based on<br />

historical permits for the Silver<br />

Fern Farms works and the Kaputone<br />

Wool Scour.<br />

Said AWA spokesman Peter<br />

Richardson: “The companies<br />

say they are entitled to rely on<br />

the previous plant owners’ use<br />

consents, but those consents<br />

were for entirely different purposes<br />

– wool scouring and meat<br />

processing. We don’t think that’s<br />

right.”<br />

“ECan correctly required<br />

these companies to apply for<br />

new consents, although in our<br />

view it then processed the consents<br />

unlawfully,” he said.<br />

If AWA is successful, there<br />

will be a further hearing at a later<br />

date on whether the consents<br />

were granted legally by ECan.<br />

The Bottle Off! campaign has<br />

been created to support the legal<br />

action and an online PledgeMe<br />

campaign has raised more than<br />

$40,000.<br />

A petition with about 115,000<br />

signatures calling for the end<br />

of foreign companies selling<br />

bottled Christchurch water was<br />

handed to ECan in April.<br />

LIQuID LAuNDROMATs<br />

345 sTANMORE ROAD, RICHMOND<br />

261 BuRwOOD ROAD, BuRwOOD<br />

7 DAYs: 5am-11pm<br />

wAsH & DRY ALL YOuR<br />

LAuNDRY IN ABOuT 1 HOuR<br />

DRY UP TO 3 LOADS IN<br />

ONLY 25 MINUTES!<br />

$4 SAvE TIME & ELEcTRIcITY<br />

$4.00 WASH $4.00 DRY<br />

wash 2 Mink Blankets, Duvets<br />

or woolrests for only $8<br />

SELF SERvIcE<br />

• Fast Dryers<br />

• Sports Gear<br />

• Duvets<br />

• Mink Blankets<br />

• Bedding<br />

• Washers<br />

• Domestic Laundry<br />

Other Locations: 289 Colombo Street, Sydenham • 47 Carmen Road, Hornby<br />

17 Halswell Road, Hoon Hay • 713 Ferry Road, Woolston • <strong>31</strong>9 Pages Road, Aranui • 65 Percival St, Rangiora<br />

www.liquidlaundromats.co.nz<br />

238 Port Hills Road,<br />

Heathcote<br />

corner of Port Hills and Chapmans Rds<br />

shop hours<br />

Monday to Saturday<br />

8am - 6pm<br />

Sunday 9am - 4pm<br />

Daily<br />

Specials

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!