Raglan Talking to Raglan

Half an hour with Mayor Aksel Bech covering issues, including a structure plan, rates (Aksel didn't recognise the 11.66% figure - it comes from an 8 April report saying "The average targeted rates increase is 11.66%"), roading, the World Surf League Championship and the beaches bylaw.

A discussion around the items on the agenda, including the World Surf League, Surfside's request for reduced rent for Wi Neera St properties, horses and vehicles on beaches and a survey saying we need to better manage traffic and improve the overall visitor and local experience, particularly during peak times.

A couple of apologies this week - I got the date of my interview with the mayor wrong - it's 9.30am this Thursday (30th) and also, there was a short silence part way through, before I picked a fascinating recording from 2010, of the late Malcolm Cox, telling a story as only he could, about his hobby of geckos and how they were surviving on Karioi. Also looking at the agenda for tomorrow's Communit...

A few news items, including that Mayor Aksel Bech should be on the radio about 9.30 on Thursday morning, talking about issues such as the surfing championships, followed by an interview about Xtreme Zero Waste from the Morning Show.

An interview about the Palestinian Prisoner day event at 11am in Bow St on Saturday and a decade old reminiscence about Xtreme Waste, together with the usual items, including conformation of an alcohol ban for a week of the 10-day surfing event at Manu Bay in May.

Another week of failing to talk to our councillor, so instead we heard about the alcohol ban proposed for Manu Bay during the surf championships, the Annual Plan (consultation is not required) with rates increase of 2.8%, but the flat rate Uniform Annual General Charge is going up 3% and 'targetted' rates 11.66%, despite postponing , or cancelling projects such as reserves and walkways. There was...

Noel Smith talked about the new council, government plans to abolish them, the wastewater consent and other issues.

Also covering https://www.gets.govt.nz/WARC/ExternalTenderDetails.htm?id=33796986 , which invites Bus Contract Renewals to run for 9 years from 1 Nov 2027. The government requires all new buses to be electric, but Regional Council say we could still have old diesel buses until 2035. It's also not clear that they'll remember to tell the bus companies they've promised further consultation about the...

An hour's chat with the Chair of Raglan Community Board, Ross Wallis, covering plans for the surfing competition in May, for Wainui Reserve and devolving decisions to RCB. We also talked about the possibility of an outdoor movement hub, getting trees planted at Manu Bay, stormwater, water and sewage upgrades, roading, buses and several other issues.

This week with news about the solar panels at the Raglan Wastewater works, where there's an open day on Sunday, about roads, too holy, too dangerous and ending with part of an archive interview with Nev Meekings, about the Majestic cinema, of which the box office remains at the entrance to the Town Hall.

This week the main items were an interview with Waikato Regional Councillor, Noel Smith, and a look at tomorrow's Raglan Community Board agenda.

Lisa Thomson joins us to talk about consultation, how the new council differs from the previous 3 years, Wainui 30yr plan, the wastewater consent, climate issues, resilience, the problem of representing an area that votes about 2/3 for Labour (or more progressive parties) in a council of National constituencies and which don't have tourism as a major issue, Māori representation, whether we'll get...

Aaron came back for a morning to talk about dolphins and seabed mining and our councillor, Lisa, says she's going to be on the radio at 9am on Thursday.

We listened to an Instagram promotion for the bus (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSGJK2rEqLC/?igsh=azI1Zm5sbDMxazJt) and to our Regional Councillor, Noel, asking a question about the bus; it seems there will be further consultation before they make any changes to the bus and that we might have electric buses from November next year. Also next Monday, 9th, councillors are having a round-table disc...

A look at the weather, local politics and what's on, together with an interview with Green MP, Kahurangi Carter, about her 6pm meeting tomorrow evening in the Supper Room. Also a hope that our district and regional council politicians might want to talk to their voters, but at present they don't.

Still some technical problems, but at least RTR was recorded this week and the interview about Friday's 6pm Pizza & Politics with Kahu in the appropriately named Supper Room can be heard.

In a draft decision the fast-track approvals panel hasn't approved seabed mining. Vera and I reminisced about Kiwis Against Seabed Mining's campaign and hope the final decision won't require even more work by KASM. This was a photo of Vera giving evidence to one of the many hearings - this one in 2014.

RTR took over the Morning Show for a while this morning to talk to Ross about the Surfside Church plans for Wi Neera St, Wainui Reserve and other issues. The agenda is at https://waikato.civicclerk.com.au/web/UserControls/DocPreview.aspx?p=1&aoid=712&token=ae5a8564-1da4-4e24-9590-7372b937b63d and a summary of it at https://docs.google.com/document/d/166RwcXMWIOP3opQKewUkdfkQsKKR_tStOoPqqAj...

With Aaron away, technical problems left a short silence, but at least the recording worked this week. It includes the usual events of the week, a summary of recent news and a look back at some of the stories from 2025. Enjoy it!

This week starting to look at what happened a century ago, in 1926 Whāingaroa, when the population was only 302, only about 10% had cars and hardly anyone listened to a radio.

Not much news at Christmas, but the mayor is encouraging us to join the new Community Voice Panel (https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waikatodistrict.govt.nz%2Fnews%2Farticle%2F2025%2F12%2F17%2Fcommunity-voice-panel-now-open-for-registrations) and Go Raglan to fill in their survey (https://form.jotform.com/253141482123043?fbclid=IwY2xjawO3F_VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxN...

After the technical problems of the last few weeks, it's good to have RTR without them.

Sorry for missing 2 weeks. Hopefully the technical problems are now solved. Belatedly, thanks to Lisa, we've now got the breakdown of the local election referendum on Māori wards, showing that Whāingaroa was the only general ward to vote for them - Ward KEEP % REMOVE % Total Electoral roll Awaroa-M 372 9.11% 872 21.36% 4082 Huntly 635 15.34% 757 18.29% 4140 Ngāruawāhia 1262 12.59% 1779 17.75% 1002...

District and Regional Council have both just abolished their Climate Action Committees, so it seemed a good time to listen to an extract from the BBC World Service's Climate Question (https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct702t) to check that there really is a climate emergency. Also there's another Palestine vigil starting at 11am near the Library on Bow St on Saturday. Unfortunately, despite peace p...

This week summarisiing the 456 page agenda Waikato District council had yesterday - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83759114749?pwd=VzzITVatRwXWDUhjFLwtUHuU7XL4q6.1. It includes hopes for devolution of limited powers, but abolishes the committee which has done limited work on climte change over the last 3 years. Also a Morning Show report on the New York election - with the amount many locals travel aro...