Northland news in brief: Fritter Fest goes green; home insurance premiums surge nationally

This year's Fritter Festival was a huge hit. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Whangārei’s Fritter Festival not only managed to feed and entertain 4000 people, it also kept more than 80 per cent of its waste from going to landfill. A grant from the Glass Packaging Forum to the Northland Events Centre Trust funded a programme for glass recycling, where the glass was colour-sorted on site by volunteers. Glass weighing 461kg was collected for recycling, along with 484kg of plastic, cans, cardboard and compostable material being diverted from rubbish bins.

Insurance premiums

Home insurance premiums have surged by more than 30 per cent in a year in some parts of New Zealand, but Northland’s rates remain under the national average. Data collected by Finity Consulting for Treasury since late 2022 and released to RNZ under the Official Information Act, showed insurance remained widely available in all regions between 2022 and July 2023. The most expensive regions tallied with the highest earthquake risk – still considered New Zealand’s biggest natural hazard risk despite recent severe weather events. Northland’s premiums had increased from an average of $1406 in late 2022 to $1581 in July, last year – 11.7 per cent. The national average increased from $1485 to $1744 – just over 16 per cent – for the same timeframe. The Finity data also showed that properties in some locations could no longer get insurance online but that companies were now choosing to have them more carefully assessed. Those areas didn’t include Northland.

Mangamuka update

NZ Transport Agency is holding an information session today in Kaitāia to give an update on repair work on State Highway 1 over the Mangamukas. The route has been closed for almost two years after extensive slips from a number of adverse weather events. The session is from 7am to 12.30pm at the Kaitāia Markets.

Fruit juice recall

New Zealand Food Safety is directing a recall of all raw fruit juice from Our Fruit Box or OFB, and is advising people not to drink the product. The company making these juices has not been registered under the Food Act, nor gone through the required checks and balances to ensure it does not contain pathogens like E. coli, salmonella or norovirus. The recalled raw juice has limited identifying labelling, and was sold in 20L plastic containers labelled ‘OFB’ and in unlabelled bottles of different shapes and sizes.

$15,000 for Diabetes Northland

The Whangārei Lions Club raised $15,000 for Diabetes Northland at its 30th Annual Charity Golf Tournament at the Northland Golf Club. The event has raised more than $300k for local charities in the past 30 years.

Have your say

Kaipara residents are being asked for feedback on council’s Long Term Plan 2024-2027 consultation document. Kaipara Mayor Craig Jepson says the proposals outlined reflect a focus on recovery and resilience, and the challenging environment the council is working in. The proposed average rates increase in the first year of the Long Term Plan is 15.1 per cent after growth, reducing in the later years. The submission process can be found at www.kaipara.govt.nz/ltp and closes on May 4.

Vegetation fire

Far North firefighters from Mangōnui and Karikari were called to a large vegetation fire in Taipa on Thursday afternoon. Crews spent nearly five hours bringing the blaze under control.