Waikato Regional Council

Te Huia will begin calling into Pukekohe Station from February next year, providing a connection to the Auckland Transport network and direct travel to central Auckland. The stop will be added to the Waikato-Auckland passenger rail service from Monday, 10 February 2025. As part of the change, Te Huia will discontinue service to Papakura Station, with the final stop planned for Saturday, 8 February at 6.21pm heading southbound to Hamilton. Read more ⬇️

⚠️ Desert Road Incident ⚠️ Our Incident Response team is at the site of a truck and trailer crash down a steep bank on State Highway 1, south of Tūrangi. State Highway 1 is currently closed between Rangipo and Waiouru (Desert Road). We were contacted by Fire and Emergency NZ at about 8am this morning, and promptly notified local iwi Tūwharetoa. The truck has about 3,000 litres of a low-grade chemical (hydroxide cleaning agent) on board. The crash occurred around 60 metres from the nearest waterway. The chemical is contained, there has been no leaking, and there is no immediate threat to the environment. The chemical will be removed by suction before the truck is recovered tonight. Our Incident Response team responds to environmental notifications that involve potentially unlawful discharges to air, water or land and contamination in the Waikato region. To report environmental incidents in the Waikato region, like harmful pollution in our waterways or offensive odours, our hotline 0800 800 401 is available 24/7.

Our Annual Report 2023/24 has now been signed off by council. 📅✅ It sets out the mahi (work) we’ve delivered over the past year and explains how we funded it. Check out Chair Pamela Storey and Chief Executive Chris McLay’s rundown of some of the highlights 👇

When Greg Townsend first started trapping predators on his property and the adjoining Hakarimata Scenic Reserve in Ngāruawāhia three years ago, he was catching 50 possums a week with no end in sight. “After that first year, and not seeing any difference to the bush, it was pretty hard to stay motivated,” says Greg, who at the time was just one of four adjoining landowners on a mission to turn around the canopy collapse and restore birdsong to the Hakarimata Range. But the small group persevered, with funding and support from various organisations (including Waikato Regional Council’s Small Scale Community Initiatives Fund, Go Eco, the Department of Conservation, Waikato District Council, Transpower, Forest & Bird and Pukemokemoke Trust), and they’ve now got 100 locals on board to endeavour to help make the Hakarimata Range become predator free. Predator Free Hakarimata, which launched its Hakarimata Halo Project to the community in May, has now removed more than 5000 pest animals from the mountain – mostly possums. Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/41wHoOJ

Cricket fans attending this week’s highly anticipated Black Caps v England test match in Hamilton can enjoy free bus travel on match days, thanks to a collaboration between BUSIT and Seddon Park. 🚍🏏 The offer provides easy travel access for ticket and accreditation holders throughout the five-day match. The test starts on Saturday and fans can access free transport to and from Hamilton Transport Centre from 14 to 18 December by showing proof of their ticket on the urban Hamilton routes. Simply download your match day ticket on your mobile device or have the printed copy available to show the driver.   Read more ⬇️

Despite the best of intentions, it can be a struggle for volunteer community Predator Free groups to meet the goal of eliminating rats, possums and mustelids due to competition for resources and funding. For this reason, Go Eco (Waikato Environment Centre) set up the Central Waikato Predator Free Hub, which harnesses the power of collective action to maximise the effectiveness of community predator free groups. “The hub was a collaborative initiative of Go Eco, Waikato Regional Council, NZ Landcare Trust, Predator Free Hamilton, Predator Free Cambridge and the Department of Conservation (DOC), all who have representation on a steering group,” says Go Eco chief executive Jo Wrigley. “We all met to identify the challenges around a growing number of small groups and initiatives, small contestable pools of funding, group succession and longevity, and community engagement in safe and ethical predator control. The group developed a strategy, and Go Eco picked up the operationalisation of the strategy, along with the challenge of finding start-up funding.” Read more here: https://bit.ly/3Vl287T

Chair Pamela Storey is here to give you a quick overview of today’s full council meeting. Don’t forget, we livestream and record our council meetings. You can find them on our YouTube channel here ➡️ https://bit.ly/3VdJHlw

🔹 Full Council Meeting 🔹 Our next full council meeting is set to start today (Thursday, 28 November) at 9.30am. Here are some of the key items on the agenda: 🔹 The 2023/24 Annual Report and Annual Report Summary are set to be adopted. 🔹 The Waikato Water Done Well project team will update councillors on the project's progress. 🔹 Councillors will also receive a report outlining mandatory changes to the Waikato Regional Plan required by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020. Want to know more about what will be up for discussion? Check out the agenda here: https://bit.ly/3pmftjH The meeting is livestreamed, so you can listen to the discussion as it happens. Follow it live here: https://bit.ly/419zo65

What’s in a drop of water? 🔎💧 Much more than you might expect, as it happens. In fact, in a single drop of water, we can now find the discarded DNA of thousands of species. This enables us to map aquatic ecosystems with immense detail and precision. It's called environmental DNA, or eDNA for short, and it refers to all the fragments of genetic material that are left behind as living things pass through the water. An eDNA analysis of a water sample will reveal the species present, and that could be anything from fungi and fish to insects and algae. Learn more about eDNA here ➡️ https://bit.ly/3UKBYKC

🔹 Upcoming Council Meeting 🔹 Our next full council meeting is set to take place this Thursday, 28 November at 9.30am. Here are some of the key items on the agenda: 🔹 The 2023/24 Annual Report and Annual Report Summary are set to be adopted. 🔹 The Waikato Water Done Well project team will update councillors on the project's progress. 🔹 Councillors will also receive a report outlining mandatory changes to the Waikato Regional Plan required by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020. Want to know more about what will be up for discussion? Check out the agenda here: https://bit.ly/3pmftjH The meeting is livestreamed, so you can listen to the discussion as it happens. Follow it live here: https://bit.ly/419zo65