— On Fri, 10/6/11, Stuart Murray < >wrote:
It’s not often district councillors admit they got it wrong.
But what’s even more important to Pleasant Valley Daffodils’ Gordon and Cindy Coombes, is the fact that the Timaru District Council is putting the wrong right.
It’s the story of a $50,000 strip of tarseal, and some very dirty daffodils.
Earlier this week the council went against its own no-seal-extension policy for 2011-12, when it agreed to seal the Coombes’ Brophy Rd frontage. The reason was simple: An earlier council had got it wrong.
The story of the daffodil growers and the dust goes back several frustrating years for Mr and Mrs Coombes.
For 18 years they have lived on what used to be a gravel, dead end, two-house road. All that changed when the council approved an eight-lot subdivision further up the road five years ago. The Coombes had no say over the subdivision proposal as it was not notified. The impact it has had on their daffodil growing business and their home, has been huge.
The planning consultant the council used at the time said the dust from the subdivision traffic would be minimal so there was no need for the road to be sealed.
The dust turned out to be far from minimal from the 64 vehicles a day using the road on average. And there are still two more homes to be built.
The Coombes have acres of bulbs growing in the open paddock, while their show blooms are in a shade house only 25 metres from the road. The dust from the road drifts over the shade house and the couple’s house, leaving behind a layer of dirt.
The dust has the greatest impact on the shade house blooms when they are covered in morning dew. The dust and damp combination leaves brown streaky marks on the flowers.
“It’s like a run in your mascara,” Mr Coombes explains.
And that run-mascara effect is not good if you are trying to produce the very best blooms to ensure you attract the orders for your business. The flowers can be cleaned up, but it all means a lot of extra work.
The dust is a constant nuisance in their home whenever the road is dry – any time from late August through to autumn.
“It sticks to the TV screen,” he explained. The couple live in a multi coloured house. Mr Coombes started painting it four years ago but it is too cold to paint in winter, and in the warmer months the dust makes it virtually impossible to get a surface clean enough to paint.
The couple went through the council’s annual plan submission asking for their road to be sealed last year, but without success. This week Mr Coombes was back in the council chamber, this time with neighbour Richard Taylor who asked the council to seal Brophy Rd from the junction with Te Moana Rd through to the sealed driveways of the subdivision.
While there is no money for seal extension in the coming year’s budget councillor Michael Oliver told fellow councillors the job had to be done.
“Mr Coombes had no opportunity to comment [on the subdivision] as it was non-notified. Errors were made in the approval of the consent. In my view we have an obligation [to fix the dust problem] as it is having a serious effect on the Coombes.
“Clearly major errors were made. “The dust is so obvious you can draw pretty pictures on the windows any day of the year; there is so much dust,” Cr Oliver said.
Fellow councillors agreed. The road would be sealed sometime in the next 12 months. That is a decision Mr Coombes admits came as a huge surprise – a surprise which means the couple can look to pristine blooms, a clean TV set, and a house painted all one colour.
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