A shortage of doctors in Kawerau has been cited as one of the reasons for not adding 80 more homes to the district.

Kawerau District Council heard submissions on its plans for a new residential development at Stoneham Park on Wednesday.

Submitter Tracy Wilson raised several issues she had with the proposal to remove reserve status from Stoneham Reserve, so that it can be developed for housing, and apply that reserve status, instead, to the stock pound land that is currently partially rented out as grazing for horses.

Tracy, who has worked at Kawerau District Council in the past as its parks and recreation officer and more recently was a nurse at Tarawera Medical Centre, said she felt Kawerau should get its services right before inviting more people into the district.

As well as water services and problems staffing the town pool, which are the direct responsibility of the council, she mentioned a lack of medical services in the town.

'We're already struggling with some of those services and we're going to compound that struggle when we add extra community. It concerns me that current organisations cannot cover the needs that we've already got and we're proposing to add another 80 families. I'm afraid it may tip them over the edge.”

This sentiment was echoed by fellow submitter Kristine Windle.

'At my doctors [Kawerau Medical Centre], there are three doctors and you can only get a virtual consult or you can get your prescription from a nurse. At Tarawera [Medical Centre] I know that Dr Williams has just left. I've got a friend who goes there and it takes at least three weeks to get an appointment.”

Radio New Zealand reported this week that two doctors had recently left one of Kawerau's two health centres.

Doctor availability was dependent on urgency and there were wait times as long as four weeks for non-urgent patients.

Mayor Faylene Tunui acknowledged that, coming off the back of Covid and health service reforms, service delivery in the health space was very difficult and the council had a role to play in advocating for better services.

"It is a bit of a cat and mouse game, where if we don't have the people here it's very hard to advocate for the service delivery, but as you say, for those who are already here, there's not a lot of availability.”

Tracy and Kristine were the only two of the 40 submitters on the Stoneham Park development to speak at the hearing on Wednesday.

Four others had indicated that they wished to speak at the hearing but were unable to attend the revised date for the hearing from April 12 to April 26 for various work or family commitments.

The submitters also shared concerns about the stock pound area being made into a reserve.

Tracy said it would not only mean the council losing the $2500 a year it receives in lease payments but the land would require a greater cost to the council to maintain than Stoneham Reserve.

'I see a number of the reserves could do with some more maintenance and it concerns me that we're adding to the reserves' stock. Stoneham Park is reasonably easily maintained just by mowing, but there are other sorts of reserves that require a different style of maintenance that costs more. There's nothing cheaper than mowing or grazing.”

She said the most recent exchange of land for reserve she was aware of was the Waterwheel Trust.

'If you took the time to go down and have a look at that, it's not something we would be proud of, I think.”

Kristine, who has leased this paddock for many years, said the only cost to the council while her horses had been there has been blackberry spraying. She also felt the council's maintenance of parks such as Monika Langhem Reserve was lacking.

'There hasn't been any blackberry spraying there for a number of years,” she said.

Tracy and Kristine enjoyed the privilege of maintaining that [land]. Members of the community enjoy seeing the animals there.

Kristine pointed out that dog walking and bike tracks, which have been suggested as uses for the reserve, are already available at nearby Monika Reserve and Stoneham Walk.

'Those things are available 500 yards down the road. They've had bike tracks up there and they've only lasted a short while. After Sarah Walker won her Olympic medal they had done up the BMX track and that's hardly used now and the mountain bike track has just disappeared.”

Horses will be missed

Local Democracy Reporting visited the horse paddock on Fenton Mill Road on Wednesday and met long-time Kawerau local Sherraijka Bruintjes, who was visiting the two horses there.

She said she had enjoyed seeing them while walking to school and on the way home since she was a child.

'It was just nice having the horses here. People really enjoy them. They've always been really friendly. I'm really sad that they're not going to be here anymore. If I've had a bad day, this is where I come.”

Photo: Diane McCarthy.

Development should not take Stoneham name

Former Kawerau District Council parks and reserves officer Tracy Wilson told Kawerau District Council she felt Roy Stoneham would not have wanted a residential development named for him.

During her hearing with the council on Wednesday about the proposed development she said they should consult with Roy's family about the naming of the proposed subdivision.

Roy was Kawerau's second mayor. He was elected in 1965 and re-elected unopposed at each election until he died in office in 1983. In 1977 he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community.

'One thing I recall about Roy was that he respectfully declined a street being named after him. So a park was named after him,” said Tracy.

'If someone didn't want a street, how would they feel about a subdivision.”

She felt Roy's family needed to be consulted on the name of the development.

Mayor Faylene Tunui said, from her understanding, there had been some private conversations with the family.

-Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.