Current Affairs
Here you can read about items of current interest affecting the Inlet.
Special General Meeting - Consitution and Future Strategy
Members,
We need to approve our revised Constitution which has been written to conform with the changed requirements of the Incorporated Societies legislation and the Charities Commission. We need to have it approved and operative by the start of our financial year on 1 April. In order to do this, we need to have a Special General Meeting so members can approve the revised and amended Constitution.
We therefore have set a date to do this: Wednesday 19th of March at 7.30pm. The venue will be the Baptist Church next to the Whitby Shopping Centre. We need some of you there as we have to have a quorum of at least 15 people to conduct any business.
Our Secretary, Simon Glover, will give you formal notice of the meeting together with the order of business and a copy of the revised and amended Constitution in early March. You should have received an email in late January providing a copy of the Constitution and asking for any comments on it. We didn’t receive any responses so we assume there are no changes needed.
Hopefully the approval of the Constitution will be fairly quick, so we have decided to use the occasion to run a strategic session where we decide on the range of activities and events the Guardians should undertake over the next five years. We should also decide on what priorities members would give to existing and any new activities and events, especially where funding is required.
We currently undertake a wide range of events and activities. These include (in no particular order):
Inlet clean-ups, the triennial cockle count, Inlet planting and maintenance, trapping pest species, photo competitions, video productions and dissemination, community engagement, website development and maintenance (the website is a repository of much information on the Inlet and its wildlife), the newsletter (three times a year), involvement in council, other community group and Ngati Toa activities, writing and presenting submissions to councils and other parties on plans, resource consents and by laws, lobbying on behalf of the Inlet and its environmental ecosystem, and keeping abreast of science and commentary on the matters affecting the Inlet ecosystem and its wildlife.
If you have any initial thoughts on the importance of these and any other activities could you email us with your preferences and ideas. We can then use these for input into the Strategic Session.
Posted 13 Feb
Freedom Camping Proposal
Freedom camping, as defined by the Department of Conservation, means to camp on public land outside of a formal campsite (on the side of a road, at a parking area, by the coast, etc.) using either a motor vehicle, tent, bivouac or another type of temporary structure.
While there are freedom camping sites in Porirua these areas are the subject of controversy, especially when rules are broken.
Porirua City Council is, therefore, proposing a new bylaw to help with the management of these sites and have put forward a consultation document with explanations as to what constitutes freedom camping, where this can be legally carried out and what are the problems associated with it.
The general public are invited to submit responses to the proposed bylaw after reading through the consultation document. Links to information on the proposed changes follow:
The above document also guides you through the process of making a submission and is easy to follow.
Item 7 of this draft bylaw makes specific reference to the restrictions being proposed.
More information on the proposal and how to make a submission can be found HERE: