North Canterbury News: January 20, 2022

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NEWS 4 The North Canterbury News, January 20, 2022 Vax policies vary at NC councils By ADAM BURNS, LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER The Hurunui District Council is not recording the vaccination status of its 180plus employees and is not requiring vaccine passes at its facilities. But council bosses say it is consulting on an internal vaccination policy for its staff, contractors, and volunteers which is still at the draft stage. The approach differs from the other North Canterbury councils where restrictions are in place for the Waimakariri and Kaikoura districts. The Government’s traffic light system is set to be reviewed this week as the threat of the Omicronvariant of Covid 19 looms large. The system which replaced the alert level framework in earlyDecember has accentuated freedoms for the vaccinated. Hurunui District Council chief executive Hamish Dobbie says government guidelines have not determined vaccine passes needed to be implemented to date. ‘‘The exception to this is where facilities are not situated on council property and central government has mandated vaccination and the use of vaccine passes,’’ he says. There is 187 staff employed by the council, including 129 who were fulltime, or fulltime equivalents. ‘‘A draft vaccination policy has been developed, and is being consulted on with staff, contractors and volunteers,’’ Mr Dobbie said. Orange settings under the traffic light system require tougher restrictions for organisations who were not enforcing vaccine passes. However, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) confirmed there were no restrictions on Hamish Dobbie the number of workers, nor requirements for vaccinations in industries ‘‘not captured by specific restrictions in the Covid19 Protection Framework’’. ‘‘Workplaces should consider how they are managing Covid19 as part of business continuity and health and safety, and take steps they deem appropriate for their specific situation,’’ an MBIE spokesman said. Council says it is utilising the one metre spacing rule and a‘‘high level of sanitisation’’. Mr Dobbie said it was not recording the vaccination status of staff but it was being “contemplated” in the draft policy. ‘‘Health and safety of our facilities for the whole council team and the members of the public who use our facilities is monitored on an ongoing basis and adjustments made as necessary to ensure risks are adequately managed.’’ The councilowned Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa however has enforced vaccine passes at the popular attraction. The Hurunui district is 92 percent fully vaccinated according to latest data from the Ministry of Health. Some staff have been affected by the Waimakariri District Council’s vaccine requirements for “high risk” positions. Atotal of five casual employees who are yet to confirm their vaccination status are no longer being rostered, a council spokesman says. Afurther two permanent parttimers are also being treated as unvaccinated by council and aspokesman says it is looking at ‘‘redeployment options’’ for these individuals. There are more than 380 fixedterm and permanent council staff members. Vaccine passes are required to access aquatic centres, libraries and service centres throughout the district following acouncil meeting prior to Christmas. Council says the vast majority of feedback received from residents has been positive. Further north, the Kaikoura District Council said it had lost none of its 36 staff due to vaccine requirements. The council did not confirm if any staff were unvaccinated, due to the small number of staff. ‘‘We will not be releasing details, as staff might be identified,’’ council corporate services senior manager Murray Dickson says. ‘‘Staff are overwhelmingly vaccinated.’’ All staff working within the council building, which includes the museum, library, council chambers and Environment Canterbury offices, are required to hold avalid vaccine passport. Avaccine mandate was confirmed for all 2791 Christchurch City Council employees earlier this month. Questions remain, however, around the vaccination status of more than 500 employees. Brush strokes Oxford’s Main Street toilets are in for a spruce up. The toilets have sported amural over many years, which even won the town a Keep New Zealand award in the late 1990’s as atourist attraction. The mural on the inside and outside of the concrete toilet block was painted by a local artist and community volunteers. However, in recent times the Waimakariri District Councils has painted over the mural and now committees of Keep Oxford Beautiful and Oxford Promotions, are looking for an attractive artwork for the concrete block building. Coordinator of the project Shirley Farrell says the committees want the artwork to reflect the native fauna and flora of the area. ‘‘We are looking for adesign that is bright, fun and appealing, but incorporates native birds and native plants,’’ she says. Waghorn Builders has offered the free services of apainter to clean, prepare and paint the front exterior to give the artist aclean, clear canvas to work on. ‘‘We just can’t paint amural on apublic building like we used to. ‘‘The design has to be approved by the Waimakariri Public Arts Trust, the local community board and ultimately the council, so there is aprocess to go through. Mrs Farrell says there are some great artists in the area and the committees would like to use their talent in creating something at that reflects ‘‘our birdlife in an interesting way for our community and travellers to enjoy’’. If you are an Oxford artist and would like to develop aconcept idea and express your interest in painting the mural please email oxfordmuraltoilets@gmail.com or phone/text 0213124382 for acopy of the brief and information. Referafriend and you’ll both receive$200 New World Vouchers Iraisedmychildren in North Canterbury,and Ihave lovely familieslookinginour area. Simplyrefer someone interestedinsellingtheir home, and afterthe sale Iwillgiveyou both New Worldvouchers to thevalue of $200! Fora“No surprises” real estateexperience, contact KirstynBarnett today. KirstynBarnett Residential/Lifestyle/Commercial Sales Consultant M 021 312 230 E kirstyn.barnett@pb.co.nz Property Brokers Ltd Licensed REAA 2008 PB056717
IN BRIEF Bookgiveaway Seftonauthor, James Ryan, aged12, is giving away afree copy of his book Nature’sWildlife Weapons to a North Canterbury News reader. People interestedinwinningasignedcopyof James’ book can enter by emailingthe North CanterburyNews editor RobynBristow: robyn.bristow@ncnews.co.nz, with your name and phonenumber by Friday,January28. The winner of the bookwill be notified by phone. New weighbridge New weighbridge softwarehas beeninstalled at the AmberleyTransferStation. The software will improveefficiency for customers andstaff. Weightrax includes vehicle recognition cameras setupatbothends of the weighbridge which record avehicles registration. When acustomer returnstoweigh out, their vehicle registration will be recognised, andtheir transaction willautomaticallyappear on the screen for payment. The system,which wassignalledinthe Hurunui DistrictCouncil’s LongTerm Plan, willreduce the timerequired to process accounts andreduce queuing. Kaiapoi CommunityGarden burglary Police and Kiwi Rail are investigating aburglary at the Kaiapoi Community Garden. Theburglars entered the back of the garden by crossingthe railwayline from Fuller Street. AKiwi Railspokesperson said crossing the railwayline at that unauthorisedpoint constituted trespassing and if caught the burglars would be fined$10,000. ‘‘The only place you are permitted to cross railwaylines is at authorised crossingpoints,’’he said.Thereare two signsnear agap in the fence running paralleltothe railway line on Fuller Street at the back of the garden warningpeople to keepoff the tracks. The burglary, which occurredlatelast year,left volunteers at the garden feelingdisheartened afterthe garden shed was damaged and the lawnmower stolenduring the breakin. Anyone nopticing anything suspiciousatthe gardens should contact the Kaiapoi police. NEWS The North Canterbury News, January 20, 2022 Flexible policy for blood donors The New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS)has aflexible policy regarding Covid19 vaccination passports for people donating blood. The NZBS nationalmanager of marketing and communications, Asuka Burge says thatNZBS fully supports the Government'scall for all eligible New Zealanders to be vaccinated, but underthe Ministry of Health’s guidance, NZBS is classified as ahealth provider, like hospital services, and as such, cannotrequire donorstoshow a vaccine pass. However, all blooddonors mustbe healthy, feeling welland free from respiratory illnesssymptoms to be eligible to giveblood. ‘‘Our donor centres are safe places to visit and we are taking all necessary steps to ensurethat stays the case,’’ Asuka says. However, some venues where the mobileblood drives are held require donorstoconfirm theirvaccination 5 status beforeallowing them on the premises to donateblood,and some do not. ‘‘Thisisadecision thatrests squarely with the venueitself, not NZBS,’’says Asuka. ‘‘Covid19 is arespiratory virus and there is no evidence it can be passed on throughablood transfusion. However, we do askall donorstoattendonly if they are feeling well and havenorecent known exposure to aCovid19 case.’’ Disappointment at mandate The Canterbury Country Cricket Association (CCCA) has issued a Covid19 double vaccination mandate to those who use its Rangiora Mainpower Oval and McAlpines Pavilion facilities. The mandate has disappointed some members of the Rangiora Photographic Society which uses the McAlpines Pavilion as its club rooms. Society president Dave Woodcock said he was ‘‘very sad for the few people who will have to be excluded from club meetings because they are not vaccinated.’’ There is also one club member who is double vaccinated but doesn’t have avaccine pass and will not be attending meetings because they don't agree with the vaccine mandate. The society's committee met last Thursday to discuss the mandate and ‘‘the general consensus was of considerable disappointment that CCCA felt it necessary to impose this requirement’’, Mr Woodcock says. ‘‘We are aware and deeply concerned that this will impact negatively on some members of our fellowship, and therefore the society, due to segregation and exclusion. ‘‘We just want to do the best for all our club members,’’ he says. The committee considered seeking alternative venue options for meetings, but realised that any new facilities would most likely be subject to the same mandate. CCCA executive director Peter Devlin says Covid19 double vaccinations and vaccine passports were now afact of life. ‘‘Anywhere you go now, cafes, shops, sporting events, you have to have avaccine passport. ‘‘ Iwent to afuneral last Thursday and had to flash my vaccine passport to get into the chapel. At the recent cricket test at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch avaccine passport was required. It is just something we have to live with,’’ he says. ‘‘As asports facility we have to respect and abide by all the health and safety requirements including those around Covid19. ‘‘We certainly don’t want to exclude anybody, but the requirements are just something we are required to abide by.’’ Last year, the Ministry of Health told the CCCA that all children playing in its childrens' teams had to be double vaccinated against Covid19. ‘‘That mandate went down like a cup of cold sick,’’Mr Devlin says. ‘‘But in the 28 teams we had playing in various tournaments around the South Island only ahandful, or five or six players hadn’t been double vaccinated and some of those had had one vaccination shot.’’
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North Canterbury News: January 20, 2022

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