More and more families are pleading with the council to allow existing wood burners to be upgraded after suffering huge power bills or simply shivering through the night.
Twenty four abatement notices have been issued by Nelson City Council staff to homes around the region, with many being told to have their fires capped or completely taken out. But many home owners say they don’t want to give up wood burners and are quite happy to upgrade to cleaner burning fires, if only the council would let them.
Craig Ashton and Brenda Mathews bought their Bishopdale family home in April this year from Housing New Zealand. They poured their life savings into the property and borrowed more to replace the filthy carpet and paint the rooms.
They say they did not know the fire wasn’t compliant and had assumed Housing NZ would have kept it up to scratch. But because Housing NZ missed the upgrade deadline under the council’s Nelson Air Quality Plan, the house can no longer have a working fire in it. They have been issued an abatement notice and were told to cap the fire and install a heat pump, diesel heater, pellet burner or LPG heater.
They say they can’t afford any of those options but because they have access to free firewood would be happy to borrow more money and install a clean burning fire, but they’re not allowed to. They are fighting the abatement notice and taking the decision to the Environment Court. “They keep saying about families being able to afford to buy homes and then they lump us with this stuff,” says Brenda. “Give us a break.”
Other families have come forward too, contacting Nelson Weekly about massive power bills since switching to heat pumps or frustration that they can no longer use their fires.
Grey Power president Neville Male says the “draconian restrictions” are a huge issue for many of its members. “The situation that currently prevails in Nelson allows some residents to use approved burners, some to not to use approved burners and others to continue to use old burners installed before the restrictions were imposed. That is a totally undemocratic and unfair state of affairs endorsed by a council policy that is causing huge discomfort to those throughout these cold winter months who cannot afford increasing power bills and it must be sorted.”
Mayoral candidate Rachel Reese says a failure to review the Nelson Air Quality Plan is exposing potentially hundreds of people to the prospect of illness and unacceptable levels of discomfort. She says heavy handed regulations which force the removal of wood burners, means many home owners simply cannot afford to pay higher power bills or invest in expensive heating alternatives. “It is time to end this blunt instrument approach to clean air, and find a way of providing what many people lack; a warm, dry home, and a heating option at a price they can afford.”
She says some areas need the restrictions because of a government-set clean air standard but other areas should be allowed the burners and promises to investigate the issue if elected.
Nelson mayor Aldo Miccio says something needs to be done before next winter and he will review the plan if elected for another term. “It’s time now that we bring in an expert panel to review this straight away because technology has moved on since this plan started in 2002. We can’t have another winter without a solution on this.”
