Local Government

This contains government changes of interest to Pinenhaven residents.

Pine Tree Discussion

Here is a discussion paper written Chris Coslett reguarding the the Pinehaven pine trees.

Rubbish Collection

Council rubbish collection in Pinehaven is on Fridays.

Pinehaven Stream Floodplan

In conjunction with Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), Upper Hutt City Council (UHCC) has commissioned a three stage study into the management of the Pinehaven Stream Floodplain.

PPA’s Position on the Flood Plan

At the meeting of the PPA committee held on Tuesday, 25 November 2014, following extensive discussions with members of the “Save Our Hills” Group of concerned Pinehaven residents, it was resolved to develop and adopt a resolution to be sent to the “Hutt Valley Flood Management Subcommittee”. This is what we have resolved as the PPA’s position:

“That the PPA:

acknowledges the effort being made by the WRC Hutt Valley Flood Management Subcommittee and the UHCC to address the concerns of the community regarding the proposed mitigations for the potential flood risk in Pinehaven and Silverstream;
expresses understanding of the need to explain and resolve some apparent technical discrepancies between the background data and the resultant flood maps; and
also acknowledges the desire of those residents who stand to be affected by future floods to see the physical works proceed as soon as possible.”

Updated position – October 2015

This submission was revised after the results of the audit were made public, mid 2015:

“The Pinehaven Progressive Association (PPA) supports the completion of the physical mitigation works as proposed in the Pinehaven Stream Floodplain Management Plan.

The PPA has reservations about other aspects of the FMP, however.

The meeting of the “Save Our Hills” group of residents that took place in Pinehaven on Thursday 6 November 2014 raised a petition for an audit of the Flood Hazard Maps prepared as background to the Floodplain Management Plan. The PPA recognised the SOH group’s concerns as valid and asked that these be specifically addressed by the Hutt Valley Flood Management Subcommittee.

Now that the Audit is complete and the District Plan change and associated rules have been proposed, the PPA has had feed back from the community, as follows:

Significant concern remains regarding the accuracy of the flood model, given an anomaly noted but dismissed in the latest version of the FMP document.
The flood maps are still not clearly defined and lack workable information. For instance, there is inconsistency between the degrees of flooding shown on different maps, and between the labels used on different maps in the document. There is also inconsistency between labels on the maps and the terminology used in the document text. The result is confusion as to which areas are referred to in certain clauses of the FMP document.
Many feel the proposed District Plan Change Rules are overly restrictive and ambiguous, with no clear indication of how they may be interpreted, measured or applied. In particular, blanket restrictions on the size of new buildings and on hazardous substances within the “ponding zone” (not defined on any map) to name a few, seem to us, unreasonably restrictive.

Until these items are addressed, the PPA defers support of the Flood Hazard Maps and District Plan Change.”