Bay Harbour: March 10, 2021
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<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News Wednesday <strong>March</strong> <strong>10</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
16<br />
LETTERS<br />
THe Banks Peninsula<br />
Community Board was<br />
informed on December 7 that<br />
the Akaroa Service Centre,<br />
refurbished to meet the needs<br />
of the community at a cost of<br />
nearly $1 million in 2015, was<br />
closing to the public on January<br />
5, <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
Customer Services was<br />
moving into the Akaroa Area<br />
School and community library<br />
to form a citizens hub where<br />
the council has installed a new<br />
security system, TV camera<br />
and safe at considerable cost to<br />
ratepayers.<br />
However, the draft Long Term<br />
Plan, page 43, states that service<br />
centre desks in Lyttelton and<br />
Akaroa will close.<br />
The city council provided<br />
misleading and inaccurate<br />
information to ratepayers and<br />
the Akaroa Area School.<br />
It installed unnecessary, costly<br />
security equipment in the school<br />
and community library.<br />
In my view chief executive<br />
Dawn Baxendale’s Long Term<br />
Plan poses a serious threat to the<br />
resilience and well-being<br />
of remote and isolated<br />
communities such as Akaroa<br />
and the <strong>Bay</strong>s at a critical<br />
time when they need support<br />
and assistance. – Victoria<br />
Andrews<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
•City council head of<br />
customer services Sarah<br />
Numan responds<br />
Most people now choose to use<br />
our online and phone services<br />
to make payments to the city<br />
council.<br />
With that number growing,<br />
we’ve reviewed the demand<br />
across the city for face-to-face<br />
financial transactions at our<br />
service desks.<br />
While <strong>10</strong> of our service desks<br />
have high demand, Akaroa<br />
and Lyttelton have minimal<br />
transactions, with a continuing<br />
decline since 2015. Accordingly,<br />
in our Draft Long Term Plan<br />
we are proposing to close these<br />
service desks. We encourage the<br />
community to submit feedback<br />
on the proposed change.<br />
Over the next six months,<br />
we a trialling the offer of faceto-face<br />
financial transactions<br />
at Akaroa Library. The decision<br />
on the proposed move of<br />
customer service functions for<br />
a trial period was introduced<br />
due to a staff change. An<br />
evaluation of the trial will help<br />
inform the decision making on<br />
the proposed change in the Long<br />
Term Plan.<br />
City council staff and Te Pātaka<br />
o Rākaihautū/Banks Peninsula<br />
Community Board will continue<br />
to use the building. All of<br />
the usual meetings will continue<br />
to be held in the boardroom in<br />
Akaroa such as the community<br />
board, Akaroa Urban Design<br />
Panel. Independently of the Long<br />
Term Plan decision for face-toface<br />
financial transactions at<br />
Akaroa, the property strategy<br />
for the old Post Office building is<br />
“retention.”<br />
While the city councillors and<br />
community work through the<br />
Long Term Plan consultation<br />
process, all services will be continue<br />
to offered, and delivered<br />
either directly at the Akaroa<br />
library or in conjunction with<br />
our customer services team.<br />
The Avon-<br />
Heathcote<br />
Estuary Ihutai<br />
Trust is a<br />
non-profit<br />
organisation<br />
formed<br />
to protect<br />
one of New<br />
Zealand’s most important<br />
coastal wetlands. Each<br />
week, board members will<br />
discuss matters regarding<br />
the estuary, its rich history<br />
and what makes it unique.<br />
This week Bill Simpson<br />
writes about a failed<br />
proposal to establish salt<br />
works<br />
IF YOU live on the hill overlooking<br />
the estuary you will be<br />
pleased to know the following<br />
idea is dead and gone and will<br />
not be spoiling your view.<br />
In 1917 Leslie Macarthur asked<br />
New Brighton Borough Council<br />
if he could use 300 acres (121ha)<br />
of estuary alongside the South<br />
Brighton Spit for salt works.<br />
That would have been 15 per<br />
cent of the estuary surface.<br />
ESTUARY MATTERS<br />
Plan for a salt works terminated in 1923<br />
At stake was a £<strong>10</strong>0 bonus offered<br />
by the government for the<br />
first 500 tons of salt produced in<br />
this country.<br />
Macarthur quickly gained the<br />
backing of the borough council<br />
and the Marine Department.<br />
He proposed a pipeline bring<br />
seawater from the coast to the<br />
salt works.<br />
His company had the grandiose<br />
title “Dominion Marine<br />
Electro-Solar Salt Works” but<br />
he evoked the ire of the district<br />
health officer who insisted<br />
that the probable by-products<br />
including alkali acid would be an<br />
“offensive trade.”<br />
Macarthur persisted and further<br />
support came from the city<br />
council and Lyttelton <strong>Harbour</strong><br />
Board. In 1921 he was offered a<br />
temporary lease of 20ha.<br />
A company was formed with<br />
a capital of £<strong>10</strong>,000. Macarthur<br />
asked the government to increase<br />
the bonus to £2000 for the first<br />
2000 tons of salt and also asked for<br />
protection from cheap imports.<br />
The government refused and<br />
in April 1923 the proposal was<br />
terminated. We can only wonder<br />
whether a house on the hill<br />
would have been so desirable if<br />
the salt-works had gone ahead.<br />
There’s a twist to this. One of<br />
the early residents of Southshore,<br />
George Skellerup, was obviously<br />
inspired by the story and started<br />
work on a salt works at Lake<br />
Grassmere near Blenheim.<br />
The government bought a<br />
share of his company and renamed<br />
it Dominion Salt Ltd.<br />
Salt was first harvested in 1949<br />
and to-date Lake Grassmere<br />
has been the main supplier of<br />
kitchen salt for New Zealand.<br />
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