Thank you for caring about the future of our Eastern Bays community, we hope you have a good re-energising break and come back ready to make the most of 2024.

Until 15 December 2023 (FRIDAY), you can give your feedback on all or any part of the draft District Plan.

We all want a sustainable city with a great environment and housing, business and employment opportunities for everyone who lives in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt.

A key part of achieving that is through a rulebook for land use and development called the District Plan. We’ve had our current plan since 2004 and although we’ve made some changes along the way, we’ve now given it a top-to-bottom rewrite and want to know if you think the new draft plan is on track.

https://www.huttcity.govt.nz/council/district-plan/district-plan-review

You can give feedback on any part of the draft plan at haveyoursay.huttcity.govt.nz/draft-district-plan or send your submission to district.plan@huttcity.govt.nz.

If you’d like to delve into the details, you can access the full draft plan online or explore the maps.

Feedback on Tupua Horo Nuku draft design plans for Sorrento Bay and Whiorau (Lowry) Bay closes 15 December 2023.

You can find the plans at the following links:

• Ngau Matau & Sorrento Bay
• Whiorau (Lowry) Bay

Also included for your reference is a summary of the engagement that has already taken place on the wider design plan, which covers all bays in the Tupua Horo Nuku project. This document includes an appendix (pages 8-14) showing specific feedback on features within the proposed designs and the responses from the project team. This document can be accessed at the following link:

• Landscape and Urban Design Plan Engagement Summary

As per the consent conditions for the project, the draft plans will be available for review and feedback for 15 working days. The consultation period will close on 15 December 2023. Following this, all feedback will be compiled alongside the comments gathered from the online consultation. The project team will then consider and provide a summary of comments with responses.

The documented comments and responses must be submitted back to the consent authority to fulfil the conditions. It will also be sent back to all named organisations who provided feedback. The design plans for Sorrento Bay and Whiorau (Lowry) Bay will then be completed and submitted for certification.

Please send us your consolidated feedback on behalf of the residents within your bay by Friday 15 December 2023.

We appreciate you sending this as a single submission to the project email address: tupuahoronuku@huttcity.govt.nz

On March 24 2024 we will be staging an Eastern Bays Resilience Expo (name may change).

This will be run along the lines of the Village Market being run by the Lions at Muritai School this Sunday (December 17th, 10am-3pm).

The aim is to promote community resilience at an individual, household and community level. We will be encouraging each bay to have a plan and appropriate resources - so anyone attending will be able to register for their bay and gain points for attending, learning and participating in exercises, with both spot prizes and bay prizes to be won.

The Expo will include exhibitors from groups that expect to be involved in community response to either immediate (i.e. earthquake, storm, slips, fire etc.) or gradual (i.e. sea level rise, climate change, infrastructure issues etc.). It will also include businesses that may offer related services or products which will help us get through.

The goal is to get maximum participation at all ages, and there will be a campaign leading up to the event to highlight and inform on how to become more resilient, and what to look forward to on the day.

If you or a group/ business you are associated with feel you would like to be involved, contact Bruce Spedding or other any member of the Eastbourne Community Board with your ideas. If you are a voluntary organisation it could be a chance to recruit as well.

Eastern Bays Emergency Radio Network

Not many know we have a network of civil defence radios throughout the bays to provide a backup method of communicating in the event that normal communications and/or access break down. These radios are located at the community hubs, but also in individual homes. We currently need 2 radio operators in York Bay and also southern Eastbourne. The operation is fairly simple and there's not much time involved (a few minutes each month to run a test if you are around). If you are curious/ interested please contact Bruce Spedding.

Transition Town Lower Hutt (on Facebook)

Eastern Bays Climate Response Network on Facebook. Feel free to comment or post on topics related to the goals of this group on the Facebook page.

EBCRN is focussed on the need to act now to both mitigate the causes of accelerating climate change as well as prepare for the impact on our community. You can find out more about Eastbourne and the Network here. If you have climate related events, resources, requests, suggestions or any other information you would like to share please send it to us.

 Note: we create this newsletter "on the fly" as information and events come to our attention. Sometimes short notice of event dates mean the event passes before we send this out, so each email may be triggered but an upcoming event rather than a reasonable interval since the last release. Please feel free to give feedback on content and frequency of news, and send through items you might feel are of interest to the group.

You can forward this to someone if they would like to  join the Eastern Bays Climate Response Network and/or subscribe to the email updates