Tinwald is a small township south of the Ashburton river in the South Island of New Zealand.At last count the township had a population of 2703 people living in 1047 households half of which are occupied without children. Tinwald has always be been regarded as the lower income earning area of the Ashburton District but despite that is was once the home of a former Prime Minister of New Zealand William Massey and later former Mayor of Ashburton, Tinwald motor mechanic Geoff Geering.
For more information about Tinwald click on their homepage I built for them on this website. http://www.ashburtondirectory.co.nz/tinwald/index.htm
Proposed Second Bridge
The concrete bridge that connects Tinwald to Ashburton was opened in 1931 after being replaced by a wooden bridge. You can read more about the history of the bridge and the Tinwald township from a link to this Maori website.
http://www.livingheritage.org.nz/Schools-Stories/Ashburton-s-Treasures/Ashburton-Bridge
The Ashburton Council have decided that traffic numbers have increased to the point where there needs to be a second bridge built across the Ashburton River and they have chosen to build the bridge further downstream from the present bridge by joining the roads of Chalmers Avenue on the Ashburton side of the river and Grove Street on the Tinwald side of the river.
Ann Craig going in to bat for her Grove Street neighbours
Grove Street residents are up in arms about the council wanting to turn their street into a main highway. I recently spoke to some of the people who live on Grove Street and they are not at all happy about the situation.
One such women is Ann Craig who took it upon herself to organise a public meeting in the local Tinwald Hall where over 200 turned up to the meeting. The Ashburton District Council also held a meeting about the proposed second bridge and over 300 people turned up to their meeting.
The numbers were not great considering that there are 15,000 Ashburton ratepayers who will be contributing some $13 million to the initial cost of building the bridge and there are 30,000 residents of the Ashburton district alone who rely on the bridge and take it for granted.
Don't worry about the DOG Beware of the owner
My interview with Ann Craig.
Ann has a number of dogs on her property on Grove street and the sign on her gate says “ Dont worry about the DOG Beware of the Owner”
Once inside the gate with the dogs locked indoors we sat in the sun and Ann told me all her reasons why the council should not turn Grove street into a main traffic highway and these are some of the reasons she gave me.
- There are approximately 8000 vehicles per day crossing the present Ashburton river bridge and a large majority of those are heavy vehicles.
- A second bridge linking Grove Street with Chalmers avenue will provide a short cut for traffic going north and south and heavy traffic
will bypass Ashburton and Tinwald. - Traveling tourists will also bypass the main shopping areas of Tinwald and Ashburton.
- Property values in Grove Street will go down because less people will want to live on a main highway with heavy traffic polluting the air.
- The pollution coming from the extra traffic in a residential area will be detrimental to the health of those living alongside the highway
- Motor vehicles are becoming larger and the weights of the vehicles are becoming heavier.
- Older bridges will not be able to stand the weight of the heavier vehicles so drivers will be encouraged to use the modern stronger bridge.
- A Christchurch property developer Brent Ennor recently spent $2 million on buying up land at the northern end of Grove Street to develop a much needed retirement village for the local community and now the council has put a stop to his development.
- It was estimated that the retirement village would of employed up to 100 people.
- There has never been a referendum done amongst the ratepayers to see what the locals prefer.
Ashburton District Council
In its new district plan the council has taken on a lot of development in the district so I called on the council and interviewed Gavin Thomas who is the community planning manager for the Ashburton District Council. I asked Mr Thomas how much the of the ratepayers money the council was intending to spend on new development projects and these are the rounded estimated figures to the nearest million he gave me.
- New Aquatic Centre - $17 million
- Indoor Stadium - $13 million
- Funding for Lake Hood - $2 million
- New Ashburton Business Industrial Estate - $20 million
- New Art Gallery and Museum - $4 million
- Ashburton River Second Bridge — $13 million
Total capital expenditure in 2010/11 annual plan $69 million
Total number of ratepayers 15,000 = $ 4,600 per ratepayer
Cost of New Bridge = $800 per ratepayer
My interest in Grove Street
Today’s view of our new home in 1967 at 155 Grove Street Tinwald
Between 1967 and 1977 the township of Tinwald was my family’s home. We moved from Alexandra to Tinwald and first rented a house in George Street.
Once we settled we bought an empty section on Catherine street but sold it to a builder as a deposit on a new 3 story split level home at 155 Grove Street which cost us $12,000 in those days.
I was a sheep shearer back then and living in a lower class area did not bother me however I gave up shearing in 1971 and bought a carpet cleaning business. That type of work did not do my bad back any favours so I put on a collar and tie and became an Investment Consultant.
In 1975 we lost the roof off our 3 story Grove Street house in a freak nor’ west storm. The storm flattened most of the forest plantations in mid Canterbury and as result of this my son Michael and I spent 12 months as logging contractors for the Ashburton County Council.
In 1976 I was appointed Branch Manager of Broadlands Finance based in Timaru and we left Tinwald in January 1977. I never broke ties with the Ashburton people and continued commuting to Ashburton in the finance industry.
More recently I visit Ashburton in my role as a Business and Tourism Promoter. This website is one of 6 other websites I have established along SH1 between Invercargill and Christchurch in my effort to promote the businesses and towns along New Zealands main highway.
Farming and Tourism
As a tourism promoterI feel pretty excited about the future prospects of Tinwald and Ashburton but like all rural towns farming is their bread and butter and what is missing from many of these towns these days is the fact that the modern farmer is not getting involved like he once did in local government affairs. The fastest growing industry in the world is tourism and yet many of the smaller rural towns fail to see that many people around the world have never stood on green grass, never seen a cow being milked, never seen a sheep being shorn and very few New Zealanders are telling them where they can find these things happening. I see real potential in promoting the green grass and animals that we have along the roadside of SH1 as apposed to the rocks and tussocks of the McKenzie country and the snow and ice of Central Otago.
Message to Grove Street People
Looking north down Grove Street from outside our former home
Finally in this article I salute you Ann Craig of Grove Street in Tinwald for fighting for a cause that you believe in and good on you for spending you own income on your neighbour’s interests.
As for the rest of you Grove Street people don’t let Ann do all the work for you. If you don’t want to do anything to help yourself then at least give Ann a donation so she has some backing when she takes along her team of dogs to fight Goliath.
Coming Soon
Keep turned to this Ashburton Business News website because in my next article I want to talk about swimming pools and I want to find out how many of the councillors are regular swimmers.
