A friendly reminder about health and safety during the festive season

from the Waipapa Trust

We all know the kiwi trifle is a winner at this time of the year and it always will be.  But I witnessed an apple crumble second to none.  I had gorged on freshly minced cream pāua first and then jumped straight to the crunch of the apple crumble with custard and ice cream.  And that was the end of my Christmas menu but it was good to be with whānau.  

While on that note, if you're in Kāwhia whānau, enjoying the beautiful weather, please understand, the marae is off-limits.  The trust is aware everybody wants to go onto the marae to see what's happening with the rebuild or check out to see whether there's any surplus material laying around that might get turfed. 

The trust chair has just had an email from ASAP, the construction company that is doing the infrastructure build on the Marae, with regards to a beneficiary entering the marae looking for surplus iron from the roof and was told, it'll be reused for cladding on the pump shed.  The person was still keen on having it so the boss reiterated "no you can't" to which the beneficiary didn't seem happy about. 

This is the very reason, the trust ended up in court in 2018 when it was alleged some beneficiaries received preferential treatment for marae assets sold to them on the cheap after the old wharekai was pulled down.  

Waipapa Marae Trust chair, Cathrine Holland.

"One of the agreements we have with ASAP is to ensure the Marae and its immediate environs are completely off-limits, whilst construction is underway. You will know there are health and safety requirements at play,  for which both the Marae and the building company are extremely conscious of and liable should anything adverse happen onsite.  The current protocol is open to Trustees only, but always with prior approval from me as the Chairman.  In the meantime,  Waipapa marae is still a building site and no one is to be onsite until we finish in March.  If we do have marae assets to get rid of, the trust will publically auction them off after the build is completed so everyone has the same chance to purchase them."  

Happy New Year everyone, enjoy!