Media Releases
May 2008
15 May
Japan sends masters swim team to Waitakere
Waitakere's
West Wave aquatic centre has been chosen by Japan's
national aquatics organisation as the location for their
12th Annual Grand Masters Swim Meet this Saturday.
The friendly meet will see 130 Japanese masters-grade
swimmers competing against 40 of their Waitakere City
counterparts in a variety of swimming events.
The Japanese Swim Service chooses a different country each
year to hold their masters swim meet and its honorary
chairman, Yukiteru Okumura, says many members were keen to
visit Waitakere as a place of natural beauty, with people
"who take good care of nature".
"The purpose of this swim meet is to enjoy and interact with
swimmers from different cultures," he says.
Mr Okumura is confident the meet will be "a memorable and
fun event" for Japanese and Waitakere swimmers alike and
encourages members of the public to come along to cheer on
the competitors. A $1 spectator fee applies.
16 May
Nominate an "unsung hero" for a 2008 Waitakere City Community Board Award
Waitakere's community boards want to hear about the "unsung
heroes" of your community.
Nominations are now open for the 2008 Waitakere City
Community Board Awards, which provide an opportunity for
local people to celebrate and honour community volunteers at
a grassroots level.
Nominees can be individuals or small informal groups who
have got together to achieve something worthwhile - but not
properly organised societies or clubs. Nominations close on
20 June.
In about 250 words, describe who they are, what they have
done, the length of time they have worked in the community
and the impact they have made. Be sure to include your
contact details and those of the person/group you are
nominating.
Send your nominations to:
Waitakere City Council
'Unsung Hero' Community Board Awards
Private Bag 93 109, Henderson
Waitakere City
Attn: Emma Joyce (Democracy & Support Services)
Or email:
Emma.Joyce@waitakere.govt.nz
An awards evening will be held on June 27th, with five
awards presented for each ward (Henderson,
Massey,
New Lynn &
Waitakere).
13 May
Books for Babies launches in Waitakere
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TVNZ newsreader Simon Dallow reading the book
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy |
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A little audience member enjoys a song
at the launch |
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The Massey Library was filled to the brim with parents and
children for the recent launch of Waitakere City’s Books for
Babies programme.
The new literacy initiative, run by
Waitakere Library &
Information Services in partnership with Plunket and The
Books for Babes Trust, will provide every child born in
Waitakere with their first book.
The distribution of books will be undertaken in partnership
with Waitakere Plunket and Waitakere Hospital. Waitakere
Libraries’ children’s librarians will also be visiting
Plunket and other parents’/mother’s groups to discuss the
importance of reading, children’s literacy needs and the
library services and resources that can help with their
child’s development.
Books for Babies was officially launched at the Massey
Library on May 8th, with a hugely popular celebrity
story-time with TVNZ newsreader Simon Dallow and
award-winning author Dorothy Butler, followed by song and
finger games and a morning tea.
Dorothy read her book Higgledy Piggledy Hobbledy Hoy, while
Simon delighted the crowd with his kids’ bedtime favourite,
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. Simon reminded mothers
present about the importance of encouraging men to read to
their children also. He said men can often feel left out in
the early days of their children’s lives but reading books
provides an enjoyable way for them to engage and bond with
them.
All who attended the event took away a special cloth bag
containing a free book (donated by Penguin Books), important
information about Waitakere libraries and resources and tips
for engaging children in literature and reading to them
effectively. There were also lucky door prizes won,
including three iPods and tickets to Mystics netball games
at Waitakere’s Trusts’ Stadium.
“The main aims of the programme are to improve literacy
levels of Waitakere children by helping to engage them in
reading from an early age and giving their parents quality
information about how they can best help their child’s
development,” says
Waitakere City councillor Linda Cooper.
“To support this learning, the programme also aims to give
parents, as first teachers, important information on
accessing their local libraries, quality children’s
literature and how they can read aloud effectively.
“Importantly, for families struggling to make ends meet, the
initiative will provide a new book for the home. It will
also let them know that their local library can loan them a
huge range of books and other learning resources and that it
runs free weekly story-times that their children can enjoy.”
7 May
Waitakere kids apply skills to book-based art contest
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Konini School pupils (from top)
Thomas Stenburg
(8), Sophia Nobbs (7)
and Aidan Feeney (7)
with
their
letterbox creations
for the Library
Letterbox Lineup competition.
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Eight Waitakere schools are combining their literary
knowledge and artistic skill in the Library Letterbox
Line-up – a book-based art contest celebrating the New
Zealand Post Book Awards.
More than 20 classes of primary and intermediate school
children are busy designing letterboxes for their school
libraries, based on the finalist books in this year’s
awards.
Waitakere Library & Information Services, who are running
the competition as part of the annual New Zealand Post Book
Awards Festival, have encouraged contestants to choose a
book that inspires them and to design a letterbox that
builds on ideas from the story.
A range of entries are expected, with students selecting
from among the 15 books short-listed in the Junior Fiction,
Picture Book and Non Fiction categories of the awards.
The letterboxes will be on display in the WestCity shopping
mall on Friday 16 May, ahead of a prize-giving event at 7pm
the same day.
The winning classes in each of three age categories will
collect books and vouchers for their school library.
Participating schools include: Green Bay School, Don Buck
Primary, Glen Eden Primary, Konini School, Arahoe School,
Colwill School, Henderson Intermediate, Henderson North
School and Acorn Academy.
The announcement of the New Zealand Post Book Award winners
will take place at a ceremony in Wellington on 21 May.
For a full list of finalist books across all four categories
in the New Zealand Post Book Awards, visit
www.nzpostbookawards.co.nz.
5 May
Waitakere City backs Government buy-back of rail/ferries
- if it leads to better rail services sooner
Waitakere City Council welcomes the Government’s buy back
of rail and ferry services from Toll Holdings, if it will
result in quicker investment in modernising rail.
“Rail will be one of the keys to a sustainable future.
Therefore, the Government’s decision just makes sense, if
the alternative is a slower rate of investment in
re-building a very sustainable form of transport,” says
Waitakere Deputy Mayor,
Penny Hulse.
“We all know that efficient, well-equipped, rail is a very
important part of a sustainable transportation mix that will
deliver efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. That is why
Waitakere City has been an outspoken advocate for the
restoration of commuter rail and public transport in
general, in Auckland
“It is why we have embarked in partnership with the
Government and ARTA and the Auckland Regional Council, on
the massive New Lynn trenching project. This will enable
frequent commuter trains pass through New Lynn below street
level, without coming into conflict with road traffic. The
aim is to maximise rail efficiency, to the point where it is
the commuter option of choice, leaving roads predominantly
for commercial traffic” she says.
“Rebuilding the public transport system reduces dependency
on the private car, which costs the region $1 billion a year
in congestion-related lost productivity,” she says.
“But congestion is only part of it. There are massive
greenhouse emissions from tens of thousands of private cars
crawling many kilometres every morning and evening.
‘And the revival of public transport is working. New
services are met by more willing customers. It is very much
a case of build it and they will come,” she says.
Councillor Hulse says the Government’s re-investment in
national rail and ferry systems should have similar
benefits, especially if the private and public sectors work
together as the government has signalled will happen.
“Investing heavily in the national rail system to build it
back up as quickly as possible, is a strategic objective and
the Government is to be congratulated for taking decisive
action. I think it is also to be congratulated for its wish
to continue working with Toll. Private and public enterprise
have much to teach each other and if they pool their
knowledge, we can have an excellent outcome,” says
Councillor Hulse.
1 May
New literacy programme to provide first book for every
Waitakere newborn
Books for Babies, a new literacy programme to be
launched on
8 May, will provide every child born in Waitakere with
their first book.
The city-wide initiative is being run by Waitakere Library &
Information Services, Plunket and The Books for Babes Trust,
with strong support from The Trusts and the New Lynn Country
Women's Institute.
The distribution of books will be undertaken in partnership
with Waitakere Plunket and Waitakere Hospital.
Waitakere
Libraries' children's librarians will also be visiting
Plunket and other parents'/mother's groups to discuss the
importance of reading, children's literacy needs and the
library services and resources that can help with their
child's development.
Books for Babies will be officially launched at the Massey
Library on 8 May, 10am to 11am, with a special celebrity
story-time with TVNZ newsreader Simon Dallow and
award-winning author Dorothy Butler, followed by song and
finger games and a morning tea.
Penguin Books has donated children's books to be given away
on the day and there are also three iPods to be won.
"The main aims of the programme are to improve literacy
levels of Waitakere children by helping to engage them in
reading from an early age and giving their parents quality
information about how they can best help their child's
development," says Waitakere City
councillor Linda Cooper.
"To support this learning, the programme also aims to give
parents, as first teachers, important information on
accessing their local libraries, quality children's
literature and how they can read aloud effectively.
"Importantly, for families struggling to make ends meet, the
initiative will provide a new book for the home and let them
know that their local library can loan them a huge range of
books and other learning resources and that it runs free
weekly story-times that their children can enjoy."
1 May
Council advised to demolish New Lynn Hotel
On the advice of its consultant heritage architect, the
Waitakere City Council last night voted to demolish the old
New Lynn Hotel.
The state of the hotel has deteriorated in the decade since
the council approached the original owners to buy it so that
it could be preserved.
The previous owners had wanted to demolish the historic
building, so the council felt it had no choice but to refuse
the application and purchase the building itself, in order
to preserve it.
"If we had been able to move quickly back then, the outcome
today might have been different but the purchase didn't
happen quickly enough and by the time we acquired the
building, it was almost past saving," says
Councillor Derek Battersby.
"A fire almost certainly put it out of reach but,
nevertheless, we had to explore every option to rescue and
restore it anyway. This we have done and, regretfully, the
council has been advised that it is just not viable. The
building is beyond economic repair.
"This is very sad, but at the end of the day we had to bite
the bullet and agree for it to be demolished."
The West Auckland Historical Society and the Historic Places
Trust have also both agreed to the demolition.
The West Auckland Heritage Society commended the council for
its efforts "in attempting to preserve this iconic building
from our unique West Auckland past."
The council purchased three lots from the original owners,
two of them occupied by the hotel. They were purchased for
the purposes of preserving the building and are required to
be offered back to the original owners.
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