Residents of Rototuna in Hamilton have joined voices with Tamahere householders outraged about massive houses being built in their communities they fear are to become Chinese student hostels.

Chinese developer LV Park Construction is building a two-storey, seven bedroom house with ensuites in Barwick Place, Rototuna, and neighbours who believe it is intended to be student housing have taken their concerns to the Hamilton City Council.

The Waikato Times reported last week that LV Park manager Thomas Wang planned eight large-scale homes in a developing area of Tamahere, in the Waikato District Council’s patch.

NZTA has scheduled an additional information day in Tamahere to outline its latest plans for the Waikato Expressway interchange at Cherry Lane.

At the day on Thursday, May 9, 2pm to 7pm, in the Tamahere Community Hall, NZTA’s full project team will be on hand to explain the new-look interchange (pictured).

Previously the agency had planned information days at Horsham Downs and in Hamilton only.

Tamahere homeowners are furious over what is being dubbed an illegal student housing complex they say will destroy their quiet, country lifestyle.

Waikato District Council is investigating the development after a resident raised concerns that eight massive houses being built on Hart Rd were intended to be used as hostel-type housing for Chinese students.

But the Waikato-based Chinese housing developer says such claims are untrue.

Waikato’s newest golf club – the result of a merger between the Lochiel and Narrows clubs – will take its name from the Waikato River, which flows between its two courses.

To be known as the Riverside Golf Club, the name arose from a vote by members of the two clubs.

The origins of the new-look club lie nearly 80 years in the past. Lochiel was formed and incorporated in 1938 and Narrows in 1935.

The NZ Transport Agency’s latest plans for the Waikato Expressway interchange at Cherry Lane in Tamahere will be on show at public information days next week.

NZTA has completed investigations of preferred connection options for the 21.8km Hamilton section of the 102km expressway, including the Southern Interchange at Tamahere.

It is hosting two information days, one at the Horsham Downs Community Hall, Martin Lane, off Horsham Downs Road, from 2pm to 7pm on Tuesday, May 7; the second at the Hamilton Marist Rugby Club, 147 Old Farm Road, Hamilton East, from 2pm to 7pm the following day, Wednesday, May 8.

The Waikato District Council has given the green light to the proposed Tamahere village hub and retail centre but progress on controversial stormwater management will have to wait till another day.

Supporters of the Devine Rd village hub said it would give Tamahere a community focal point – a view the council has agreed with.

In its decision, notified on Saturday, April 27, the council has zoned approximately 0.88ha of Devine Rd land as Tamahere Village Business Zone – a prospective retail precinct in waiting for a developer.

Transport bosses have set aside more than $50 million to buy land for the Tamahere-Cambridge section of the Waikato expressway, as opposition parties step up their criticism of the multi billion-dollar roading project.

The Transport Agency has released its purchasing budget ahead of an announcement today awarding the contract to build the $250m Tamahere-Cambridge section to HEB Construction.

Work on the section is due to start in September and will feature 16 kilometres of four-lane median-divided highway.

Waikato district ratepayers and residents can make their voice heard from today, with the opening of consultation for Year Two of the Long Term Plan – the draft Annual Plan 2013-14.

Mayor Allan Sanson says the draft plan does contain some changes from the second year of the Long Term Plan but the changes have been brought about by events throughout the year.

A public meeting is being held in the Tamahere Community Centre on Monday, April 15 from 7pm to allow people to assess the issues, discuss the proposals and prepare their thoughts before making submissions.

Growing calls for a corporate manslaughter charge in the wake of the CTV building collapse in Christchurch and the Pike River mine disaster coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fatal Tamahere fire – where a plea was also made for stiffer law.

This week, Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson said he may pursue a law change allowing corporate manslaughter charges in cases like the CTV building collapse in the second earthquake in February 2011, in which 115 people died.

The move was welcomed by Labour’s Justice spokesperson Andrew Little, who has a member’s Bill in Parliament’s ballot that creates a crime of corporate manslaughter.

Tamahere’s top environmental project risks grinding to a halt as local conservationists find their efforts to restore a native wetland hitting a wall of bureaucracy.

The 4.6ha Tamahere Reserve was a weed-infested, rubbish-strewn haven for possums and other pests when it was taken on as a restoration project last year by a hardworking group led by local man, Leo Koppens of Tamahere Gully Care.

But despite significant progress on the ground the group was so frustrated by a lack of collaboration from the Waikato District Council and the Conservation Department that it was considering its future, Koppens told the Tamahere Community Committee this week.