THE WOOLSHED - what every ratepayer should know !

CHBDC Mayor, Trish Gidden's idea district and regonal councils should combine to purchase the Aromoana Woolshed, was an opportunity not to be missed, she said , "the building had an independant valuation of more than $700'000 , had been renovated at a cost of $180,000 but was now on offer for $300,000 if the puchase went ahead it would be leased to a Neil McHardy educational trust for the next 30 years for $1 per year as they became responsible for all costs during that time. It would become an education centre as part of a regional marine reserve. A base for DOC and the Regional council, Search and Rescue, Rural fire service and other community services. Attracting, we thought unbelieveable numbers of school and college pupils and university students who would be bussed out to the building, suplimented by other visitors, paying a gold coin donation to the trust, expected to cover their expenditure.' Expecting that if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is , we went out to Aromoana to see for ourselves as $100,000 was to be our sole contribution towards this purchase. We discovered and photographed the following;  The gravel road from Pourerere to the bridge entrance to Shoal Bay Development appeared too narrow with blind corners that would not allow it to comply with roading regulations covering safe acsess to educational facilities and reserves, requiring widening and sealing. From the bridge to the foreshore had been sealed.    Local knowledge provided the following information ;   Shoal bay had developed because it's owner had a serious cash flow problem, created by using material from below a steep face behind the woolshed. The road from the bridge to the foreshore had been sealed by the development owners because of a huge dust problem from the gravel road then gifted to CHBDC for it's ratepayers to maintain. It has been sugested that continued use by heavy vehicles (eg buses) may require an engineer's report on the bridge. The Woolshed, itself, in it's origonal state and because of it's size was not compatable with the  asking price of the sections of land or their resale price so those who had bought them payed for reroofing and painting the building plus some interior work that did not meet either OSH or education facility requirements, ($180,000 mentioned previously ) themselves. Local Iwi had used the building as part of a coastal educational programme, school groups had visited the reserve and used it for shelter and local Iwi had asked to use it again some time in Jan-Feb as a cooking facility while camping around the building that CHBDC Mayor suggested could expect a favourable reply. How could any of this happen without the building being approved for that use by either OSH or education authoritys.  Having previously photographed the road problems and other views from around the property development, we entered the woolshed to find it did indeed require an extensive financial upgrade to meet any of the required standards, not the least being no sprinklers or fire fighting equipment  and had to agree with the development property owners, who said that with major fire fighting equipment being based at Pouerere it would be too late before any could reach them. The only toilet facilities are outside the building aprox. 100 yards away. We photographed the interior of the building before examining what had happened to the cliff face behind the building after having the excavation of material from the base removed and photographed what we believed to be the result.    

I have since made contacts with people who knew the previous Aromoana camp site and cabins, prior to this excavation who agree entirely that the agressive errosion now taking place was not there previously and would seriously affect the value of both land and building (after seeing those photographs).  After considering all the photographs we have taken, that seriously differed from what we had been told about the purchase of the woolshed, we e mailed a request to CHBDC asking if we could show them to a full meeting of councilors and including our Regional Council representative and council's rating review panel ( because none of this expenditure is covered in the ten year planning )for some explanation.   We recieved a reply stating that only Mayor Trish Giddens and CEO John Freeman, would be available to meet with us. We replied that the idea that our elected councilors would have to rely on Trish and John's oppinion on what we had seen and photographed that does not go well with council's pledge to provide open local government, and hoped for a more favourable reply. Nothing has been forthcoming. So now we have taken this step to provide this information for everyone to view as our council, using due diligence, means councilors cannot discuss anything about the purchase of the Aromoana woolshed with anyone ? ? ? ?       The photographs taken are on a digital camera and have been shown to both local papers. They can also be put on a web site for anyone to veiw if anyone has that space available as at this moment we are not experienced enough to add them to this blog.  In a future blog we will detail how we expect all parties involved to benefit , or otherwise, from both councils purchasing the woolshed.

Summer Wine