Why we are here

My wife and I moved from the UK to NZ in 1981. My wife is a New Zealander. Originally the plan was to stay short term but in the end we stayed permanently. Our children were born here, raised and schooled in Sheffield and Darfield.

I became a New Zealand citizen ten years ago and am now more Kiwi than POM! I would like SDC to do more for their smaller rural settlements. In recent years it seems that the focus has been more the bigger townships, such as Rolleston, West Melron, Lincoln, and as a consequence smaller Villages are being left behind and tend to be neglected.

In Sheffield village there is a new sub division being planned and yet there has been little or no Consultaion on what infrastructure upgrades are being planned to cope with the influx of families.

I am all for progress but not at the expense of our smaller communities.

I would like to see a bike track linking Darfield, Waddington, Sheffield, and Springfield.

There is currently a large group of youth in the Waddington and Sheffield villages who can play field sports at the domain but not netball or basketball. There is a need for some sort of courts at the Sheffield domain as there is plenty of land to accommodate these facilities and it ties in with the rugby, soccer, cricket and annual polo events.

The Sheffield swimming pool, a SDC facility, needs to be upgraded or replaced. It has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that a recent report mentions closure as one of the options available to the council, who I believe have contributed to its demise due to lack of maintenance, however, I stand to be corrected on this statement.

Speed throughout both Waddington and Sheffield is an ongoing issue and it is appreciated that only limited action can be taken to try and alleviate the issue. Speed signs are of limited use. It has got to the point now in Waddington where there are so many different signs that if a passing driver attempted to read them all they would probably crash into a hedge!

I would like to see less chlorine being dumped into our water system as I believe in the long term it could prove detrimental to people's health.