MINUTES
WAIKATO/BAY OF PLENTY BRANCH
TRAINING AND NETWORKING EVENT
held on
Welcome:
Branch Chair Terrence Hayes opened the meeting, welcoming members, new members, and extended a special welcome to the events guests
Attendance:
Chamberlain Carpentry and Joinery: Ian Chamberlain
Deacon Holdings Ltd: Steve Jenkins
Draughting and Design Services: Don Cowie
Guests: Kevin Su, Louise Fourie, Geoff Williams, Peter Brownbridge, Roy Stewart
Hamilton City Council: Andrew McCabe, Adelina Pop, Alex Mardon, Josh Matkin, Willem Van Rooyen, Kanwar Bir Kalouria
Hauraki District Council: Shane Beach, Paulina van der Weijden
Holmes Farsight: Nik Hardy
JJD Consultancy: Jed Dodson
Kawerau District Council: Ian Lamb
Matamata-Piako District Council: John Needham, Raewyn Scott, Malcolm Neil
Otorohanga District Council: Phil Saunders, Andy Booth
Pending Accredited Member: Salve Basile
Property Insepct Ltd: Brendon Kenny
Red Stag Timber: David Timber
Region Consultancy: Dave Thompson
Rotorua Lakes Council: Darrell Holder, Glenn Majorbanks, Allan Hoffman, Lee McKenzie
Taupo District Council: Scott Davenport, Derreck Thorley, Peter Murphy
Thames Coromandel District Council: Ergin Nemburt, Kim Southcombe
Waikato District Council: David Samson, Terrence Hayes
Western bay of Plenty District Council: Adrian Reid, Kelly Li, Case Verkerk, Eric Davies
Whakatane District Council: Christine Watkinson Phil Roberts
Apologies:
Hamilton City Council: Alister Arcus
Matamata-Piako District Council: Norm Barton, Clive Leslie, Daniel Kruger, Natasha Murray, Helen Pattern
Tauranga City Council: Steve Higgins
Thames Coromandel District Council: Corrine Hamlin
Waikato District Council: Mervyn Balloch
Shay Harrop
Welcome:
Branch Chair Terrence Hayes opened the meeting, welcoming members, new members, and guests.
Minutes and Matters Arising:
Please find the previous minutes attached here.
Members present moved to accept the minutes as a true and correct record.
Moved: Nik Hardy Seconded: Phil Roberts
Correspondence In/Out:
Branch Executive application letters to be sent.
Board Representative Feed Back:
No general feedback from members.
General Business:
The next Branch Training and Networking event will be held in Hamilton. Venue and theme TBA
Terrence Hayes gave general reminder of the following roles and positions within the Waikato/Bay of Plenty branch executive team, advising members to contact the executives if they are wanting to express interest in any of the roles. Members can also forward any expressions of interest to the Branch Secretary at office@rctok.co.nz
The following Positions will form part of the Annual AGM, set for Thursday December 5th, 2019.
- Branch Chair - Responsible for conducting successful and relevant Branch meetings and activities ensuring members are supported in training, product information and networking.
- Branch Secretary - Responsible agenda and minute preparation and managing correspondence in and out of the branch.
- Speaker Coordinator - Responsible for organising speakers for our training days.
- Sponsorship Coordinator - Responsible for organising sponsorship and maintaining sponsor relations for our branch.
- Venue Coordinator - Responsible for organising the venues and catering for our training days.
- Membership Coordinator - Responsible for promoting membership and attendance at training days.
- Executive Support - Responsible for assisting other executive members when required.
Guest Presentation:
10.00am - 11.00am.
Branch Chair Terrence Hayes introduced the Rotorua Lakes Council CEO, Geoff Williams.
Presentation Summary
Geoff spoke on a variety of topics including long term development plans, environmental changes, and the various challenges currently faced by the Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) Region. He also covered the earthquake proposals for the museum, the Howard Morrison Centre, wastewater treatment upgrades and many more new developments for the region.
Geoff spoke of the changes now happening within the Rotorua Lakes Council region, he indicated that these changes have had some positive and negative effects on the local development scene and Rotorua is changing in a huge way.
House prices have increased considerably since Geoff moved to Rotorua in 2013. Like many other regions, it's not only the sales affected, but rent has skyrocketed too. RLC is also experiencing homelessness, with many living in shelters constructed in backyards due to rising cost of living.
Geoff reviewed some of the new developments in the region and touched on the increase in both residential and commercial consents with no signs of slowing down.
He talked about the former public view of Rotorua calling it the 'Once were Warriors' Capital which was reflected in the population changes. He found there is a higher demand on the Council due to the large influx of population over the past five years.
He highlighted the urgent need for new developments to increase in order to cope. There needs to be more invested into key infrastructure and he wants a strong focus on mountain biking. He spoke of the 4 key elements unique to Rotorua that are receiving strong investment focus: Maori Culture, Unique Environment, Adventure and Diverse Economy
Geoff also talked about challenges facing RLC:
- Airport earthquake strengthening
- New infrastructure around the lakes area is needed to reflect the diverse culture
- History of the district to enable new development progress
- The hidden issues identified in the Museum EQ strengthening process
- The Howard Morrison centre and the proposed after-hours attraction
- New forest development at Long Mile
- New Mountain Bike trail with a chair lift, café and tourism departments
- Further investments into the wastewater treatment plant
- Aquatic Centre upgrade and more investment incentives throughout the region.
The overall effect on the region is that RLC is not without its unique challenges, population issues, climate changes and housing affordability issues. Geoff summed this up by advising the Spatial Future Plan is about convenience.
End of Presentation
11.00 - 12.30pm
Site Visit: Red Stag Facilities.
Before departing for the site tour, all members present were given a safety brief by Red Stag staff. Members were then invited to meet at the main office to pick up safety gear, if required, and separate into groups and to head to various locations through-out the mill.
Members were taken through parts of the mill operations. One room of interest was the 'Logging Room' where one person operated the entire process, with very few floor staff.
Within a matter of seconds, logs enter, are measured and finally cut to optimise the best part of the log.
Another room of interest was the 'Planer Room'. Members were advised that this machine can operated at speeds of 1200m a second. In one instance a piece of timber catapulted out of the machine and went straight through the bullet proof glass like a spear.
Members were shown an area where timber is sorted via a conveyor belt. Two staff members check the timber pieces for flaws as they pass by quickly. This is a high pressure situation, where if mistakes are made, the staff can be removed and replaces by other staff.
The tour of the site was well managed by Red Stag staff and was very much appreciated by all BOINZ Members.
End of Site Visit - Members Convene for Lunch
12:30 - 1.00pm (Lunch provided by local branch sponsor: Red Stag)
1.00-1:45pm
Guest Presentation:
Peter Brownbridge (Geothermal Inspector, Rotorua District Council) presented on the recent mud pool eruption in Whakawerawera and problems facing the homeowners nearby.
Presentation Summary:
Peter gave a brief overview of the thermal activity happening within the Rotorua region.
RLC is within an active thermal area and, unsurprisingly, experiences frequent close surface eruptions.
The notable area of concern affecting residential properties is Mead Street. Every few years a surge of heat affects adjacent properties in the area, with the most recent being in 2016.
The house depicted during Peter presentation had to be evacuated due to heat pouring out of the electrical fittings which Peter initially thought was an old bore.
He had received a phone call at 1am where he needed to attend the site and assess the safety of occupants. Further issues were identified at around 7:30am, including steam and craters forming. When mud began spitting up, they thought it must have been a drainage connection issue which was not the case.
The dwelling now has a dangerous notice issued as the owner has decided not to allow anyone back inside while they wait to find out if there are any further issues.
Darrell Holder also related a similar issue with an existing hotel in the region. It was constructed in the 60's and was found to have subsidence issues. The same engineer who was working on this property was also working on Mead Street. The building was contorting with initial concerns that a tomo was forming. When the Council issued a dangerous notice in 2018, the hotel was fully booked, and all guests had to be evacuated. The engineer felt there were serious issues that were undermining the foundations, and as a result the hotel was demolished. These are some of many decisions the Council faces daily.
End of Presentation
1:45 - 2:30pm
Darrell Holder (RLC Building Manager) discussed the topic of the day "working together" and "communication/collaboration" from flooding events and lessons learnt (and banked for the future), seeking processes, procedures and forms from the Waikato/BOP Councils following IANZ assessment and gathering local designers for a meeting to educate these individuals before rolling out the changes.
Presentation Summary.
Darrell talked about the Ngongotaha flood issues where houses were being inundated from Overland Flow in Urban Environment (OLFP) issues affecting residential properties. He related the process RLC undertook and the lessons they learned. He reflected on the flood event of 2018 and the outcomes on the process showing they weren't as robust as they thought.
Some 864 Welfare visits and 300 Building Assessments were carried out, they engaged multiple support agencies, Regional Councils, Civil defence, NZFS, Police and MBIE to help with the logistics.
Other flood risk areas were highlighted, near and around the Agridome, Paradise Valley. The decisions made in the past were not as good as should have been. In hindsight some things could have been done better. Around 80 Insanitary Notices were issued. This came with the added challenge of dealing with people's emotions and potential loss of material possessions
He covered the areas of Council's initial approach and the lessons learned RLC adopting other important practices which enabled them to carry out required inspections and documenting these reports through inhouse systems, mapping tools utilising apps that enable inspectors to record data, and employing 'Navigators' to aid help home owners deal with losing their homes and possessions.
Councils initial approach and constraints:
- Working under Civil Defence Structure
- Constrained by lack of intelligence in first instance
- Started with door to door approach
- Information from Insurance Council invaluable
- Utilised a spread sheet to record initial findings
- Enhanced data in spreadsheet to capture suburbs and this allowed better use of resources
- No formal system in place in first few days to record outcomes and report on
- Adopted "Survey 123" app with support from BOPRC
- Results of inspections appear on dashboard in EEC
- Not all inspections recorded
- Received help from both WBOPDC & WDC
- Building inspectors accompanied by welfare staff
- Initial event response took approx. 2 weeks
- Conscious of workload on staff
- Limited the legacy inspection to two inspectors
Improvements and Observations:
- Updated inspectors' phones to run app
- Mapping tool being developed by GIS collective - not well known at Government level
- Better intel required to ensure that we can provide resource all areas in a timely manner
- Record all inspection outcomes as it is hard to recall after the event why we didn't consider a building affected
- Records created need to be saved to property file
End of Presentation
2:.40 - 3:15pm
Phil Roberts and Phil Saunders presented together on 'A Council's perspective on current building stock, weathertightness issues and working with Accredited Building Surveyors'
Presentation Summary.
Phil Saunders gave a brief overview of the former Act and the powers it held regarding issuing dangerous insanitary notices. He explained that under the new Act you have access to more powers and options at your disposal.
Phil posed a question to the audience: What's a leaky Building?
Potentially you don't know, as it could look fine from the outside. Some BCA's don't accept ABS reports which shows that councils are not on the same page.
Phil then introduced Phil Roberts who talked about the numerous determinations around the issues relating to non-compliance and determinations around problems with issuing Code Compliance Certificates (CCC).
Phil showed various slides of different types of housing being brought in from overseas and various photos of different types of structures. One example shown was a "stacker box" type dwellings being built in TCC region, it had single cladding and wall structure, cool store panelling, and only took four days to construct. Once the main ground floor is complete, the next sections are built on the ground level and then lifted into place.
They showed further photos showing moisture ingress issues and poor management of white mould are raising safety concerns when identified onsite. These are major issues for the industry.
Phil then presented slides of homes that have serious moisture issues but building reports for those properties had not identified those issues highlighting the moisture issue and the importance of identifying a leaky building.
End of Presentation
3:15pm - 3:30pm
David Butler, Red Stag and Branch Sponsor gave some final comments.
Presentation Summary.
David provided a final overview and thanked everyone for attending the meeting. He spoke briefly about the theme 'Working Together' as he understands how difficult it can be to get groups to work together. E.g. - When looking at how to build house, we must look at the process around development, there is a process involved and working together is about teams.
He also noted and welcomed many members who were attending the site visit of Red Stag for the first time.
David then, gave an overview of Red Stag history, from the first family who purchased the site for $1 to a now multimillion-dollar industry, much of which is put back into the overall operations of the mill.
David touched on some of the new changes over the last 12 months including the purchase of a new planer that can operate at speeds of 1200m a minute, a new treatment cylinder allowing double capacity for treatment, and a new Control Booth which now brings the mill operation into the 21st century.
Red Stag is now the highest production sawmill in the world boasting a million-dollar power grid for the energy centre used to power the entire site. David also mentioned that Red Stag is now completely Carbon Neutral.
End of Presentation
Branch Chair Terrence Hayes concluded the meeting thanking all our guest speakers for their time and presentations and concluded the meeting at 3.30pm.
Special thank you to: Branch Sponsor Red Stag, for supporting this Training event.
Dave Thompson
Waikato Bay of Plenty Branch Secretary
