Artist impressions of how the Countdown Supermarket at the new Showgrounds Hill development will look.
The go-ahead for a retail development for Showgrounds Hill, the SC RSA building s demolition, and the return of a beloved cat missing for two years, all made the headlines in December, as Doug Sail discovered in the final instalment of our series looking back at the year that was. The controversial Timaru retail development proposal at Showgrounds Hill was granted resource consent on December 11, less than a day after a ruling that the application was not headed for public consultation. Permission for Auckland-based developer Redwood Group (RG) to turn the 12-hectare site site into a 34,000 square-metre retail centre was approved by independent commissioner Allan Cubitt.
Hodgson said anglers knew the behaviour of the river better than most people. “While not all anglers have a tertiary science, environmental or engineering degree, expert anglers have a Ph.D. with honours in angling. To be an expert angler, you need to understand: river morphology, the ecology of the river, river dynamics and most importantly be able to spot and adapt to changes in the river to catch fish.” He said anglers had recently observed the river flat lining at the mouth. “This means that the river flow now no longer rises because of the rainfall events, as it used to. Often it makes no meaningful difference to the flows at the mouth after a rain event,” he said.