Sandspit Road route debated P8&9 October 9, 2023
West Pest success P15
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Green fingers P26-31
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Warkworth joins space age A global leader in the aerospace industry is setting up shop in Warkworth. Rocket Lab USA has acquired SailGP Technologies’ manufacturing complex in Woodcocks Road, where the 50 staff on site will shift from building world class racing yachts to rockets, used to deploy satellites. SailGP Technologies has been a close partner and supplier to Rocket Lab for some time, providing selected advanced composite materials and components for the Electron, the world’s first carbon composite orbital rocket. The Warkworth facility will also be involved in the new 13,000 kg payload class rocket Neutron. A Rocket Lab spokesperson says only SpaceX launches more frequently than Rocket Lab. She says that under the new arrangement, the Warkworth team will gain experience in the aerospace industry at the highest level, and staff will have opportunities to expand their knowledge and experience with Rocket Lab teams in NZ and overseas. Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab delivers launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions. Sail GP will start moving its operations to the UK next month. Full story online at localmatters.co.nz. Photo, Joseph Baxter
Heated debate on cooling climate response Kaipara District Council is cancelling its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting contract and halting the development of Kaipara’s climate policy to save $33,000. Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen’s notice of motion split the council, provoking lengthy debate at its meeting last month, before being passed by six votes to four. “There is no statutory requirement to carry
out either of these activities,” the notice of motion read, adding that they delivered no tangible benefits to ratepayers and the funds would be better spent on projects that would. During the debate, Larsen stressed that the motion related only to the two specific “work streams” budgeted through council’s 2021-31 Long Term Plan. It would not impact work such as the Ruawai Adaptive
Pathways, a project set up by the Ruawai community to prepare for and respond to flood hazards and sea level rise, or the Raupō drainage scheme, which aims to reduce the risk of flooding on the Ruawai Flats. He said that with ratepayers struggling, council needed to find efficiencies in the budget and there was little value in Kaipara duplicating work already being done at a national level.
Larsen said the money could be better spent on improving the poor state of Kaipara’s roads. The $33,000 saved could be leveraged, using Waka Kotahi’s 62 per cent funding assistance rate, and “there’s $87,000 that you could use to fix potholes”. “You’re suggesting that because we can only do a little we should do nothing?” Cr Eryn Wilson-Collins asked. continued page 2
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