Tuesday 13th April
EW 2010/11 Draft Annual Plan Roadshow
Venue: The Situation Room, 391 Victoria St (next to Breakers cafe, just around the corner and south from Ward St)
5.30pm
Resource Information Group Manager, Tony Petch, and Councillors Ian Balme and Paula Southgate will represent EW.
The roadshow will be a twenty minute presentation followed by questions. Approximately half an hour all up. So come along and find out what is in this year's draft plan, what is not that should be, what the issues are, and how to go about having your say. It is your opportunity to have input into what our regional council does and how your rates are spent.
While you are there you will be able to find out what is going on in the Situation Room if you have not been in before.
13th April Forest and Bird AGM
Also on that evening is the Forest and Bird AGM down at Hamilton Gardens, where Jim Salinger will be speaking at 7.30pm. Everyone welcome.
www.forestandbird.co.nz for information about mining issues, or join Forest and Bird.
or http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/mining to submit on mining.
Waikato Trains NOW campaign update
Well done Jon and all those who collected so many signatures.
Worth noting on the news, trucks are about to get heavier, Electric cars are not quite so environmentally sustainable as Mr Bennett makes out, according to a new report from Clive Matthew-Wilson, and we can have a train service up and running much more quickly than the proposed roadway.
Email from Jon Reeves - Campaign for Better Transport:-
Thank you for ALL your help on the petition and the campaign so far. We have had incredible success with 11,500 signatures collected and we have probably spoken to 15,000 people or more! That's a lot of influence we are seeding in Hamilton and the Waikato!
The media exposure has been worth its weight in gold. It increases the momentum of the Waikato Trains NOW campaign. It also increases the pressure on the "anti" or "not as supportive as we like" brigade. Until CBT came on the scene all the focus had been on the incredibly costly and slow Waikato Expressway. The public clearly want an alternative to being "forced" to drive to Auckland and the CBT is championing this issue.
On Monday the petition was presented in Parliament by MP Sue Moroney. Ironically we will have to deal with the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee, which is chaired by David Bennett! That will make great media coverage when the time comes as we know his, unfortunate, position on the trains starting this year, the next year or any year this decade.
WHAT TO DO NOW?
- Please write letters to all newspapers.
- Please get friends and family to join the Campaign for Better Transport. We are the only sustainable transport lobby group which stands up for what the community wants. Not what the powerful roading or trucking lobbies want. Membership is also the only funding we have. We can make the $20 membership fee go a long way on our shoestring budgets!
WHERE TO NEXT WITH WAIKATO TRAINS NOW?
CBT is not going to allow this issue to go off the radar. The proposal of Waikato Commuter Trains is just too good to allow to be pushed away into a filing cabinet. So, if we do not see positive action from the Government and Environment Waikato we will unleash the next stage of the campaign. Let's just say that we will pressure councillors stalling commuter rail. There are local body elections this year and the Waikato Trains NOW! campaign will be using these to our advantage.
However, next we will be reminding MPs David Bennett and Tim MacIndoe of what Hamilton wants now. I hope their postal boxes are ready for the next wave of public support to arrive in them. In the latter part of April I will need your help for just ONE day in a weekend. If you can help please contact Rob George. In a few weeks I will let you know what we are doing.
Thanks for signing the petition or, as in the case of Rob George, having thousands sign the petition alone! Everyone has done a great job, whether for 1 hour, half a day or many weekends non-stop! My thanks to the Janson family who combined have put in hundreds of hours. There have been plenty of other people who have helped in their own way and I am sure they know who they are. And thanks to our busload of supporters who attended the petition presentation at Hamilton Railway Station yesterday. I wonder if the staff realise what a great boss they have? I am sure they do!
CBT has won every campaign to date for better transport. We WILL add this one to our list. Good things take time.
Once again thanks and let's get Waikato trains rolling THIS YEAR!
Jon
Jon Reeves
Committee Member
Campaign For Better Transport
Waikato Trains NOW! Campaign Organiser
021 535 295
www.BetterTransport.org.nz
