PRESIDENTS’ REPORT On behalf of the Executive Committee of the Oriental Bay Residents Association 1. Special General Meeting of Members The S.G.M. will be held at the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club at 7.00pm on Thursday, 21 November 2019. We will start with the usual get-together, and this will be followed by Dave Armstrong, award-wining playwright and Dominion Post columnist. He is sure to give us a laugh. The evening will close with a brief business session, where members are welcome to bring up Oriental Bay matters of concern to them. 2. Finance We are particularly grateful to Tore Hayward, our Treasurer, for all he has done for OBRA these last twelve months. He will report on our financial position. 3. Membership We encourage new residents to come to this meeting and to join the Association. There are at present 144 paid up members, and two life members. There are still members whose subscriptions for the current year remain outstanding. If anyone here today is in that position, Tore is happy to take their subscription this evening. 4. Council Funding We are happy to report that Council funding has been increased to $1000 for this year. We would like to thank Cr. Nicola Young for her assistance, in pointing out to the Council Finance Committee that our reserves are for the rafts, should they need further expenditure, or even to be replaced. 5. Community Response Plan We are having discussions with the Mt Victoria Hub about the possibility of their working with us to produce an Earthquake Resilience Plan for Oriental Bay. 6. Monthly Neighbourhood Get-Togethers We plan in 2020 to initiate monthly get-togethers, to be held at the Tug Boat in Oriental Parade from 5.30 – 7.00 pm on the first Thursday of the month, starting on 13 February 2020. Members will see that this is the second Thursday in February, but since the first Thursday is 6 February, a Public Holiday, the later date, just for February, is necessary. We hope that this will prove popular with our residents. 4 7. Website – orientalbay.org.nz This remains our major communication channel for contacting residents. We are extremely grateful to Tony Pritchard who keeps the website up-to-date, and keeps it looking good. 8. Rubbish Collection It is some time since we had a rubbish collection. It is our intention to have one before Christmas. Everard Aspell is working on this. 9. Oriental Bay Cycleway This is working well. We believe that e-scooters should use the cycleway and not the footpath, and are following developments with the Council on this important matter closely. Kevin Isherwood of our committee has written a wide-ranging article on e-scooters in this publication. 10. Beach Clean-Up This took place on 29 September, organised by Erinn Aspell. A lot of rubbish was removed from the beach and divers extracted a massive number of bottles. 11. Events Margaret Fairhall and Kay Austad met with Toby Acheson from the W.C.C. to discuss road closures for the Marathon, which took place in June. They achieved a good result, in that Oriental Parade was only closed for a short time. We are not aware of any complaints from residents this time. 12. Bay View Judith Doyle and Lynda Graham have continued their sterling work on BAY VIEW. Judith handles all the editorial work, and Lynda has taken over responsibility for the layout and liaison with the printer, in addition to handling the advertising. Kevin Isherwood, an experienced journalist and public relations expert, has joined the editorial committee. Every committee member helps with the distribution. We are always interested in receiving articles or ideas for articles from members of the Association. 13. The Zig Zag/Oriental Terrace There is concern about the condition of the zig zag. A working party may be needed to clear it up. There has been no news about development of No.1, Oriental Terrace. 14. Conversations This is a new W.C.C. initiative, to encourage social activities in Wellington’s suburbs. Claire Campbell is handling this for us, and reported that the first such gathering was very successful. 5 15. Judith Doyle It is with great regret that we report that Judith, for health reasons, is resigning from the OBRA committee and the editorship of BAY VIEW as of this Special General Meeting. Judith started contributing articles to BAY VIEW in 2012, soon after moving to Oriental Bay, and joined the OBRA committee and the editorial committee in 2014. She has edited BAY VIEW for the last few years. To say that we will miss her enthusiasm and energy is an under-statement. The only good news is that she has agreed to continue to write for BAY VIEW, and we look forward to reading more of her well researched articles in the future. 16. Appreciation We would like to thank Cr. Nicola Young and Cr. Iona Pannett for their help and advice when issues crop up that concern Oriental Bay. We especially thank all committee members of OBRA, who have been unfailingly helpful whenever help or advice has been sought. On behalf of the Executive Committee Jackie Pope – Co-President Ann Mallinson – Co-President CONSTRUCTORS LTD 6 “News & Views” FROM YOUR LOCAL REAL ESTATE EXPERT “YES IT IS THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN – PRIME SELLING TIME” This year it is boosted by an increased buyer pool, resulting from one of the leanest years ever for availability of property in “The Lloyd Wills Bay”. This largely unsatisfied demand puts Licensed Agent REA Act 2008 the vendor firmly in the driver’s seat which, through a top marketing programme, I can Mobile: 021 413 613 Office: 04 473 3822 obtain a premium price for you. Email: [email protected] WE HAVE GOT THE MARKET COVERED! 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Oriental Bay has, until the last few months, been an oasis for Wellingtonians and visitors to unwind and enjoy the spectacular views and setting of this most special of places. In June this year, that changed when the Wellington City Council introduced e-scooters onto our footpaths, altering dramatically what, for 200 years, has been a safe and special place in the heart of our city. According to Wellington City Councillor Nicola Young, WCC’s launch of the 18- month trial of nearly 1000 e-scooter vehicles has been rushed and ill-conceived. Cr Young claims the scheme “has been a complete muck-up by NZTA. There has been a lack of rigorous investigation into the risks of serious injuries that these trendy new vehicles pose. In fact I would now support the removal of cars from Lambton Quay’s Golden Mile if e-scooters were banned from footpaths.” Cr Young’s position was strongly endorsed by the Oriental Bay Residents Association in their February 2019 submission to Council, where OBRA also called for a speed limit of 10kph. That same limit is recommended by the Automobile Association. The ACC statistics paint a grim picture. In the five months to March this year ACC paid out nearly $2.9 million in injury claims as a direct consequence of e-scooter and scooter accidents. There is also anecdotal evidence of the increasing strain on Wellington Hospital’s emergency wards as overstretched staff cope with an increasing number of e-scooter related injuries. Recently, an avid e-scooter rider was thrown over the handlebars when he inadvertently drove over a bump on the Oriental Bay footpath. He suffered a badly broken wrist and underwent two rounds of surgery. Since June there has been one potentially fatal incident involving an e-scooter after it was hurled from the Ghuznee Street overpass into oncoming traffic entering the Terrace Tunnel late one Saturday night in June. And the recent death of an e-scooter rider in Auckland last September has made the need to reconsider the regulations even more urgent. This lack of proper regulation is compounded by confusion as to the legal status of e-scooters. In January of last year a New Zealand Transport Agency official warned that there were “significant” risks if e-scooters shared footpaths and roads. These warnings appear to have gone unheeded. NZTA had ruled in January 2018 that e-scooters were motor vehicles, and presumably could not therefore be ridden on footpaths. NZTA then contradicted itself and declared that scooters had not 8 been classed as motor vehicles. That change of heart went through just seven days after operator Lime lodged an offical request to reclassify e-scooters as non motor vehicles. An offical email NZTA sent to Lime three days before the Lime launch, states “Fingers crossed, by mid next week you can quit worrying about the legality of the e-scooters and focus on other things like the launch”.