Ashburton Courier: February 20, 2020

Page 8, Ashburton's The Courier, Thursday February 20, 2020
Request for advice bureau funds
By Linda Clarke
The Ashburton District Council has been
asked for $43,394 to help set up aCitizens
Advice Bureau (CAB) in the town.
The CAB would eventually become a
standalone entity, needing just $15,000
annually from council, and could double
for a time as an information centre for
tourists.
Council will consider the request for
funds when it deliberates on its budget
later this month.
The CAB would be based from Community
House and run under national
guidelines. It needs 16 trained volunteers
to get under way.
Community House Mid Canterbury
manager John Driscoll took the funding
request to council last week and said the
community needed acentral point where
people could seek services and information,
related to their health, wealth, and
wellbeing.
Its volunteers would point people to the
right services, which could include lawyers
if they wanted legal advice or counselling if
their marriage had just broken up.
CABs operate in 80 locations around the
country, though the closest to Ashburton
are in Timaru or Hornby. They are staffed
John Driscoll
by connectors who can provide up­to­date
advice; CAB runs anationwide database of
80,000 services.
Mr Driscoll said seeding money of
$48,394 would help pay for apart­time coordinator,
who would recruit volunteers
and ensure they were trained to arequired
standard. Four people had already
expressed interest in being volunteers.
Funding from council now would ensure
the Ashburton CAB could move ahead
quickly and be open in six months.
Mayor Neil Brown said council had
closed its iSITE and asked if tourist
brochures could be at the CAB, at least
until the new civic building was complete.
Mr Driscoll said the CAB was open to
that as Community House statistics showed
inquiries had grown there since the
information centre closed. Inquiries had
jumped from 1800 to 4200 in the past year.
The CAB would operate Monday to
Friday, though there was scope to open at
the weekend. National guidelines meant it
needed two rooms, one for confidential
discussions.
Cr Stuart Wilson said he was worried
ratepayers would be picking up the tab.
But Community House treasurer Dave
Mathieson said the numbers stacked up.
He said the CAB directory nationally
fielded two million hits over 80 locations.
“You are looking at 25,000 hits per
location. If we are successful with funding
from council at $15,000 ayear that is 60
cents per inquiry.”
That was an economical way to help
serve the community, he said.
Local news at www.starnews.co.nz
Fun, colour at
college prelims
Monday’s prelims day at
Ashburton College was
mostly about dressing up,
having fun and supporting
house colours.
The annual sporty gathering
sees students compete
for honours in the
fashion and fundraising
fields.
While some opted for
competitive running,
jumping and throwing
events, others participated
for fun and for red,
orange, blue or green
house points.
Most events were held
in the college grounds,
with throwing events held
over the road in Ashburton
Domain.
Biomass plant expansion eyed
By Mick Jensen
Businessman Greg Donaldson wants your
green waste, trimmings, clippings, untreated
demo timber and cardboard, and if he gets
enough ofit, he plans to invest big money
into expandingthe biomass plant he operates
on the edge ofAshburton.
For the pastcouple of years the Ashburton
Eco Park siteonthe corner of Cochrane and
Seafield roads has processed tonnes ofbyproducts
from the contracting businesses Mr
Donaldson runs.
Items like cleared trees, power reels and
stumps are burnt in agiant incinerator.
The current incinerator, or ‘‘curtain
burner’’ as Mr Donaldson calls it, is mobile
and can process 10 tonnes ofmaterial an
hour.
The incinerator’s resource consent for
particle discharge states that it is a99per
cent clean operation.
The first stage of expansion could involve
the purchase of aelectricitygenerating plant,
which will connect to the incinerator and
return electricity tothe grid.
If volume really takes off and expansion
becomes viable, Mr Donaldson says he is
prepared to invest millions into a more
powerful and permanently located processor.
Mr Donaldson said he was excited about
the future prospects of the 8ha eco park site
and believed it could work onabig scale.
‘‘It will provideagood end use for rubbish.
‘‘Instead of rubbish going off to Kate
Valley, or being burnt illegally, it can be
processed here in a much more environmentally
friendly way.’’
Mr Donaldson said the biomass concept
had come about out of necessity for his
business and because of the by­products
generated from demolition, roading, site
works, earthmoving, directional drilling and
Greg Donaldson alongside his current biomass incinerator at the Ashburton Eco
Park.
ploughing.
He said word of the eco park site had
spread among the commercial sector over a
number of months and he was now opening
it up and inviting the general public to come
on board.
There would be flat rate charges for boot
loads, trailer loads and truck loads of waste
dropped off.
The waste strictly did not include plastics,
treated timbers, food waste, PVC, soil, pink
batts, paints or rubber.
The charges would be competitive, and
would be reduced if there was enough
material being processed and if electricity
was generated.
Mr Donaldson said he would assess
volumes and progress over the next 12
months.
If abig biomass plant did eventuate, and
ran flat out five days aweek, heanticipated
employing four orfive more staff, and more
if it was aseven day aweek operation.
Mr Donaldson saidhedid not knowofany
other large scale biomass plants operating in
New Zealand, but had heard about successful
operations in the USA and Europe.
The Ashburton Eco Park will beopen to
the general public from 8.30am on February
24. It will open weekdays from 8.30am until
5.30pm and on Saturdays from 9am until
2pm.
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