Selwyn_Times: May 17, 2023

Wednesday May 17 2023 Selwyn Times
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
NEWS 7
‘They smell bad and leach excrement’
• By Susan Sandys
GRASS VERGES on a Darfield
street have become truck stops
for vehicles leaking stock effluent
and ruining grass.
A Clinton St resident told
councillors about her concerns
at district council Annual Plan
hearings last week.
Wendy Thompson lives next
door to the Darfield Hotel. She
said the grass verge on Clinton
St adjacent to the hotel car park
had become “tatty and potholed”
over several years, from truck
drivers parking there day
and night.
“Many of these heavy
transport vehicles are livestock
trucks, which smell bad and
leach excrement while they
are parked overnight,” she told
councillors.
Trucks parked along the street
as well. They had started causing
the same issues down the road
from her house, in front of
Almond Park playground.
“Not what I think anyone
would expect next to a playground
or in any residential
street,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she had been
told by district council staff there
was no way of preventing large
trucks parking in the area.
She believed funds could be
made available in existing budgets
for the 2023/24 annual plan.
She pointed to two solutions, being
to plant trees on the verges so
trucks could not park there, and
restricting heavy vehicles from
parking on Clinton St by way of
a resolution in accordance with
the district council’s Traffic and
Parking Bylaw.
Councillor Sophie McInnes
asked Thompson how residents
of Clinton St would feel if parking
for heavy trucks was formalised
and sealed on the street.
“We have this issue in Rolleston
as well, they are parking on top of all
our footpaths because we struggle to
provide somewhere for them to go,”
McInnes said.
Thompson responded that
would not solve the odour issues.
She included photos in her
submission, including two trucks
parked on the grass verge in
Clinton St. They were a UCT and
Northern Southland Transport
vehicle.
A UCT manager told the
Selwyn Times one of their drivers
parking there would have been
“a bit of a one-off.”
Its drivers did not regularly go
through Darfield, but if they did
and needed to stop at the hotel,
they may park on a grass verge
to ensure their unit was not an
obstruction to motorists.
“It’s definitely not the sort of
thing we want to go and do all
the time,” he said.
The company had not received
any complaints about its trucks
parking on the street.
Northern Southland Transport
general manager Mark Hollis
said he also was not personally
aware of his company having
received any complaints.
Parking on a grass verge would
normally be a last resort.
“We have yards or gravel areas
where we normally park,” Hollis
said.
Thompson was one of 16 people,
from 112 submitters, who
spoke to their submissions at the
Annual Plan hearing.
Mayor Sam Broughton told
her councillors would get advice
from staff prior to making a
decision.
The district council will adopt
the 2023/24 annual plan on
June 28.
ANNUAL PLAN
HEARING: Wendy
Thompson (left)
addresses district
councillors about the
damage caused by
trucks on her street in
Darfield. The companies’
managers say parking
on the grass verge on
Clinton St is not normal
procedure for UCT or
Northern Southland
Transport.
New sports and rec centre to cost $15-25m
• From page 1
“That is the aim of this
consultation phase, to talk to the
community about those things
and come back with some more
specific options in the Long
Term Plan, reflecting what the
community wants,” Kidd said.
At this stage, there are no plans
to have a pool included in the
development, but there will be a
land provision for further aquatics
development on site.
While visitor numbers at the
current Darfield pool were down,
it is expected there will be a
greater need in the future. In the
2022/23 season, the Darfield pool
had 10,439 visits. This was about a
15 per cent reduction on previous
seasons, which was largely
attributed to a pool pump fire that
resulted in the learners’ pool area
being closed for most of March.
Selwyn Swim School operated
over the summer, with 180 bookings.
Planning is under way for
a significant increase in lesson
allocation for the 2023/24 season
to meet the increased demand.
The pool is getting a number of
improvements before next season
including a hydroslide installed,
a new water heating system, water
features for the toddler pool,
and new grandstand seating.
Consultation of the Long Term
Plan will open in the fist half of
next year.
• Consultation on Sheffield
pool, page 9
UPGRADE: An artist’s
impression of the new-look
Darfield Swimming Pool,
part of upgrades to sports
and recreation facilities in
the area.
Rising sea levels will
impact our coastal habitats
Waitaha/Canterbury’s seas will continue to rise as
greenhouse gas emissions increase and the earth’s climate
warms, up to 80 cm higher by the end of the century.
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