Northland news in brief: Gas leak closes street; $6m youth and community centre opens

Seaview Rd, off Norfolk St in Whangārei, was cordoned off yesterday over a suspected gas leak. Photo / Adam Pearse

Digger ruptures gas pipeline

Whangārei's Seaview Rd was cordoned off yesterday for about an hour after a gas leak was found at a residential property. Three fire appliances along with a First Gas van attended the scene to find the leak, which had been caused by a digger dislodging a concrete wall and rupturing the gas pipeline. Whangārei senior station officer Paul Thompson said by midday, the leak had been found and sealed with no further risk to nearby residents.

$6m community centre opens

A $6 million youth and community centre will open in Whangārei today.
Te Ora Hou is opening its new, purpose-built youth and community centre at 4pm today at 104 Corks Rd, Tikipunga.
Te Ora Hou Northland began building just under two years ago after having to move from its site at Raumanga. It has just completed the project at a cost of $6 million, which has been made possible by grants, donations and the support of local businesses.
The new site includes buildings which will provide office and working space for a number of organisations; supporting community social workers, youth workers, educators, support workers, counsellors and administrators. The design also allows for a number of different community meeting rooms.
The site covers 2ha and includes a sports field, full-size basketball gym, fitness room, large kitchen and a number of classroom spaces for young people.

Northland TV channel launch

Channel Northland Te Raki TV will be launched at an event in Whangārei this weekend.
Northland TV station Channel North is being resurrected with a former TVNZ head of entertainment at its helm.
The community free-to-air channel broadcast from 2008 until 2015, before the Government withdrew funding when analogue TV moved to digital and it became a production company. However, thanks to Covid-19 border closures, Peter Grattan happened to be in town and was approached to get the channel running again.
Northlander Grattan, who was TVNZ's head of entertainment, will relaunch the channel at Onerahi's Flames Hotel on Sunday from 2pm to 5pm, in association with the Northern Jazz Society.
A host of entertainers will perform at the launch, including Grattan, John Leigh Calder, June Hayes, Walter Bianco, Matt Watson, Alex Ward and kapa haka. The channel will be streamed on www.cntv.co.nz.

Everitt makes NZ league squad

Te Rarawa's Rawinia Everitt is the sole Northern Swords rugby league player to be selected for New Zealand's women's rugby league team wider squad ahead of the Kiwi Ferns' test against Fetū Samoa Invitational on Saturday, November 7 at 4pm. However, Everitt joins five other players - Kararaina Wira-Kohu, Juliana Newman, Hilda Peters, Krystal Rota, Christyl Stowers - who all whakapapa to Tai Tokerau. The squad of 28 will be narrowed to 19 on Saturday.