Our recycling days are starting again this Saturday 5 February. From 10am to noon, bring your recycling items to the Ngaio Union Church for recycling.

You will need a vaccine pass to come into the collection area.

Last year for only about half of the year, we took over 250kg of recycling to the Wellington Sustainability Trust. We are aiming for over 500kg this year.

Items that we accept include:

• Plastic lids – The Tiny Plastic Factory recycles these – we need to be careful about what goes into the plastic lid collection. All items need to be stamped type 2, 4 or 5 because of the recycling process. Also no thermal seals or waxy paper inserts please.
• Metal Lids – these go to McAuley Metals, and include for eg Crown caps, metal screw tops, sparkling wine wires, metal jar lids, Ring-pull caps.
• Razors etc – The Trust is a drop off point for the Gillette and Terracycle Recycling programme
• Oral care – The Trust is a drop off point for the Colgate and Terraycle Oral Care Recycling programme. Make sure all excess product is removed, and that recycling is dry
• Batteries – The Sustainability Trust has to charge $5/kg for batteries, so a koha with your drop off is greatly appreciated.
• Curtains – The Wellington Curtain Bank upcycles pre-loved curtains for those who need them. Must be mould free.
• Wool – unwanted and untangled balls of wool are sent to Crafty Volunteers, who knit, crochet and sew for charity
• Bread bag tags,
• Rubber bands from delivered Dominion Posts

We originally also collected pens – unfortunately, the Trust is now unable to accept pens for recycling as the recycler has closed that option.

Bring non-perishable food or basic toiletries to Ngaio Union Church with your recycling. Items most needed include ready meals, soup, tinned fish, biscuits and crackers, tinned fruit, shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper – but any non-perishable food or basic toiletries are very welcome.

Unfortunately, under the Red covid response, we have decided to not have our Ngaio Community Picnic in 2022. The restrictions on crowd numbers, spacing, and area fencing have made this impractical to organise and run.

The picnic is normally an annual highlight and fantastic opportunity to show our community spirit, so we are incredibly disappointed with this decision, but certainly support efforts to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Our picnic will be on again in 2022.

We are still working on the programme, but please pencil Sunday 13 March 2022 into your diaries, from 12 noon to 3pm.

Covid got in our way last year, but we are planning a full programme next march, with plenty of fun for the kids, entertainment, and a good time to meet other local residents.

More information will be posted on this site, and emailed to members in our newsletter.

This Saturday is first of the month, so our Ngaio Crofton Downs Going Carbon Neutral recycling day will be on, at The Ngaio Union Church, Kenya St.

On Saturday, we will be operating at level Orange under the Covid Traffic light system. Therefore you must have a  My Vaccine Pass to enter the Church Hall. (Children under the age of 12 years do not need a My Vaccine Pass).

You will be asked to show your My Vaccine Pass when you arrive at the venue.

We are working with the Sustainability Trust to collect the items below:

• Plastic lids of type 2,4 or 5.
• Metal Lids including for eg Crown caps, metal screw tops, sparkling wine wires, metal jar lids, Ring-pull caps.
• Razors etc
• Oral care waste and packaging – pleaseake sure all excess product is removed, and that recycling is dry
• Curtains – for the Wellington Curtain Bank – must be mould free.
• Wool – unwanted and untangled balls of wool which are  sent to Crafty Volunteers.
• Bread bag tags,
• Dominion Post rubber bands

For more information on what we accept for recycling – information is at our website, here: Ngaio Crofton Downs Recycling. We recommend sorting your recycling at home, to minimise time spent at the recycling venue- although we welcome opportunities for a chat.

DCM We act as a drop off point for groceries and donations for DCM, which supports those who are marginalised in our city.  Some of the items most needed are ready meals, soup, tinned fish, biscuits and crackers, tinned fruit, shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper – but any non-perishable food or basic toiletries are very welcome.

Community Fruit – we do collect jars for community fruit, but they do have plenty at the moment. Please keep suitable jars at home for our next collection.

Thanks to everyone who entered our photo competition, in conjunction with the AGM on 17 November. We had a total of 34 photos entered.

Everyone who entered will receive an email over the next couple of days, confirming your free membership to our Association for the next year.

Below are the winners as judged by our local photographer, Colin McDiarmid, with his comment on each. Colin said that the standard of images continues to rise and passes on his congratulations to the winners. Thanks to Colin, who can be found at http://www.colin.co.nz/.

Click on each image for the full size version, and to see all entries, visit our photo album – at Photos

Category – Weather

Winner – A stop on the way to The Crows Nest Dick Johnson, Dick Johnson

The dog in the foreground adds to the interest in this image of a stunning day with a view that we do not all get to see.

Commended – Shepherd’s Warning for Ngaio, Colin Morris

Evocative dawn shot which gets you thinking.

Category – Gardens

Winner – P Moore, Ornithogalum

Great variation in textures, providing visual interest

Commended – callyc9

Lovely close up with selective focus in the right place

Category – Pets/ wildlife

Winner – Cathy Box

Colin called this shot the absolute overall winner!. Lovely “painterly” quality – I would hang this on my wall!

Commended – Jess Maccagno, Tupi

Strong directional sidelight and the catchlights in the eyes make this image “pop”.

Commended – Colin Morris, At Home in Ngaio

The wind fluffing up the feathers of the Kereru adds visual interest to this image.

After a successful competition last year, we are repeating it again in 2021. We are lucky to have local photographer Colin McDiarmid (http://www.colin.co.nz/) as our judge again this year.

The categories for 2021 are gardens, pets, and weather – send in entries to photo@ngaio.org.nz and Colin will sort them into a category. You can view last years photos here – Photos | Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association

Eligible entries will be still photos taken in Ngaio or Crofton Downs, with no restrictions on date or type of camera, and they can be any age. There is also no age limits on the photographer – all budding photographers are welcome to enter.

The winners will be announced at our AGM on 17 November, from 7.30pm at the Ngaio Union Church– there will be prizes for the winner of each section, and all entrants will receive a one year membership of NCDRA.

The photos will remain your property but by entering you agree that the NCDRA may display your entries with due accreditation at the AGM and in subsequent publicity.

The deadline for entries is Wednesday 10 November at 5.00pm – email them to photo@ngaio.org.nz.

Wellington’s Draft District Plan – the City’s first fully revised planning rulebook in more than 20 years is now out for consultation.

The plan deals with the major planning and environmental issues facing the city – including housing supply, choice and affordability, protecting biodiversity, integrating growth and infrastructure, responding to climate change and managing the risk of natural hazards.

NCDRA want everyone to get to know what the plan contains, think about the plan, and tell Council what you think. NCDRA will be making a submission, but we think views will be so varied, that it is up to individuals to tell Council what you think, about the parts that interest you.

This Plan is going to set the direction for how Wellington will change in the next decade or two, and what it will be like for our children. We strongly recommend that our residents drop into the Councils roadshow that will be at Ngaio Town Hall, on Thursday 11 November, from 4pm – 7.30pm. Council will be there to take you through the plan and answer questions.

There are a couple of important web pages on the Councils site, for the district plan:

To learn about the plan, the consultation, and how to submit: – Draft District Plan (wellington.govt.nz)

For a schedule of all the roadshow events across Wellington: Upcoming Engagement and Consultation (wellington.govt.nz)

In the draft district plan, which Council is consulting on at the moment, there are proposals to manage Significant Natural Areas (SNA), which will impact some individual property owners who have SNA’s on their land. This article has been written by one of our members, and we are posting it in order to keep our residents informed. It is not necessarily a view of NCDRA. NCDRA believes that views on the District Plan are so varied amongst our community, so it will be hard for us to make a representative submission on its content. We strongly recommend that residents make their own submission, so that you views are put in front of the Council.

Wellington City Council is consulting on its draft District Plan including proposed new rules for managing the effects of activities on indigenous biodiversity in the city.

Supporting this outcome Council has identified around 5,300 hectares (18.2% of Wellington’s total land) where it considers indigenous ecosystems and habitats have significant biodiversity values, calling these Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) in the draft District Plan. The SNAs encompass around 1,700 landowners, but these are expected to increase as Wellington’s indigenous biodiversity spreads and with it the SNAs expand.

In urban Wellington SNAs comprise about 3,300 hectares with less than 350 hectares of that land privately owned. Yet these private landowners account for over 83% of all SNA landowners across urban and rural Wellington.

While a 2019 report by Darroch to Council concluded SNAs would provide overall benefits to Wellingtonians for urban landowners with SNAs they could face significant land value losses of up to 30%.

Despite what the Backyard Tāonga[1] website suggests having a SNA is not voluntary, the only option available to landowners is a land review by the Council’s consultant. Council has engaged consultants to identify these SNAs with continuing significant expenditure on ecologists to detail why land is a SNA when questioned by landowners.

Following this consultation, Council will prepare the Proposed District Plan (due mid-2022). At that time some of the rules in this District Plan (such as SNAs) will have legal effect, despite further consultation being required.

Overview of the proposed SNA rules for urban landowners

Under the proposed SNA rules, private urban landowners will not be permitted to trim or fell any native trees on their SNA land, unless these are:

• Encroaching on a formed public road or private accessway
• Within three metres of the external wall or roof of a building
• Required to comply with the Fire and Emergency Act 2017
• Required to remove imminent threats caused by dead or dying trees (but will require an arborist to assist)

What can you do to help?

Urban SNA landowners need your support to challenge the Council’s intention to create SNAs on private urban land in the District Plan. If you are concerned about what’s being proposed there are two things you can do to help:

1. Share this document widely with your family, neighbours, friends, work colleagues and acquaintances.
2. If you are a Wellington City resident, make a submission on the draft District Plan by 14 December 2021.

If wanting to make a submission on SNAs this can easily be done by using one of the submission text options on this link and emailing that to planningforgrowth@wcc.govt.nz, or if making your own submission on the draft District plan, by including comments on the proposed SNA rules.

[1] Backyard Tāonga is the public facing name used by Council so as to limit using the term SNA

This article was published in the Independant Herald, and is reprinted here as a reminder that We accept donations to DCM at the Ngaio Going Carbon Neutral recycling days, first Saturday of each month at Ngaio Union Church.

‘We knew the people of Ngaio Crofton Downs have big hearts and a will to help those who’re struggling’ says Sue Brown, Minister at Ngaio Union Church ‘but nothing prepared us for the huge response to our call-out last month to help restock DCM’s shelves after the Covid lock-down had nearly cleaned them out’.

‘We welcomed a steady stream of happy people carrying bags and boxes overflowing with groceries and toiletries, to help with DCM’s mahi (work) of ending homelessness in Wellington.’

The response to the appeal was so generous that Ngaio Union had to ask DCM to send along a van to carry the haul to where it’s needed, down at DCM’s headquarters in the city.

‘And so many people asked us if we could do this again’ says Sue ‘that we’ve decided to receive donations of food and toiletries on the first Saturday of each month, alongside the Recycling Collection Station we host together with Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association.’

So, on the first Saturday of each month (beginning Saturday 6^th November – 10-12) you can drop off groceries and donations for DCM at Ngaio Union Church.  Some of the items most needed are ready meals, soup, tinned fish, biscuits and crackers, tinned fruit, shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper – but any non-perishable food or basic toiletries are very welcome.

‘Why not slip a few extras into your shopping trolley or online order each week, and bring them down on the first Saturday of each month?’ says Sue ‘Together we can each do this small thing, that makes a huge difference in the life of someone who’s struggling to make ends meet.

‘And don’t forget to bring along your hard-to-recycle items to the Recycling Collection Station – toothbrushes, razors, metal & plastic bottle tops, batteries, wool scraps, curtains, glass jars. You can find more information about what we can collect at the Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents’ Association website.  More small steps we can each take, that together make a difference!

You can find Ngaio Union Church at the corner of Kenya Street and Crofton Road.