I had my fingers crossed for good weather on Wednesday afternoon because members of the Heritage Mid Canterbury working group had planned a walking tour.

The group is a mix of Councillors, representatives of Historic Places, Ashburton Museum and Historical Society, the wider community and Council staff, and all have a passion for our district’s heritage.

This week the walking tour was taking in some historic spots around Ashburton that are to be included in an official Town Walk, the details of which will soon to be revealed to the public. Without giving away too much, there are two walks that will feature in two separate brochures.

The group always has interesting projects on the go and in the past couple of years, it has co-ordinated the time capsule for Te Whare Whakatere and overseen the installation of interpretive panels along the East Street green.

A major project has been under way this week at the Ashburton Resource Recovery Park, with the installation of a new compactor. Impressively, the old compactor was installed in 2002 and has worked hard seven days a week since then - it’s been nursed along with some careful repairs in recent years, so overall not bad for a piece of equipment expected to last 15 years.

The new compactor is more powerful and can pack more solid waste into the transport pods, meaning fewer trips to Kate Valley with the solid waste we can’t recycle, reuse or compost. Next time you are dropping waste over the pit face, look right and you will see the bright teal blue hopper and compacting gear.

The Methven Community Board's strategic plan has also reached a milestone stage, so if you are heading to the Methven A&P Show stop by their tent to give some feedback.

Another major piece of work is the Annual Plan for 2025-26 and there will be a Council workshop on 21 March to enable Councillors to further progress the budget for the next financial year.

Council budgets are complicated documents that have to meet many legislative requirements, but Councillors have been firm about keeping rates as low as possible but still delivering the core services that residents want and expect.