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.

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.

Two dogs left to roam their Tamahere neighbourhood attacked sheep on Friday, mauling three so badly they had to be put down.

A Tamahere man who saw the dogs attacking the sheep in a Devine Rd paddock mid morning on Friday said a fourth sheep was also mauled but would probably survive.

Southside Sands, which proposed a quarry on a riverside property opposite Tamahere homes, has withdrawn its application.

Submitters on the proposal, including local resident Mark Chrisp who headed Tamahere opposition to the quarry, were advised the resource consent application had been withdrawn this week.

The new season bursts into life at Inspirit Gallery with Spring, the Tamahere gallery’s first sculpture exhibition featuring both indoor and outdoor artworks, opening on Friday, September 23.

The exhibition brings together more than 20 of the North Island’s most innovative and highly regarded sculptors to celebrate the season of renewed hope in this timeless art form.

An inquest into an explosion at Icepak Tamahere that killed a senior firefighter and injured several of his colleagues has heard how the plant had ongoing problems – including a major gas leak – just months before the fatal blast.

The inquest into the death of senior firefighter Derek Lovell opened in Hamilton today more than three years after he died and has been widely reported.

The Hamilton welcome sign at the northern end of the State Highway 1 Tamahere straight was bowled flat today in a spectacular crash.

Tamahere ratepayers could have an extra $3.94 added to their annual regional council rates under a proposal being considered to fund a national cycling centre near Cambridge.

Public consultation is open until August 22 on a $6 million funding proposal for a national cycling centre of excellence, including a velodrome, at St Peter’s School, near Cambridge, after the Waikato Regional Council produced a proposal detailing its costs and benefits and rating options.

The council wants to know whether people support a $6 million grant toward the $28.5 million dollar velodrome, and their preferred rating option.

Tamahere’s Inspirit Gallery’s latest exhibition is Grass Roots – art that explores the backbone of New Zealand country life.

Grass Roots, featuring artists Joan Fear, Tanya Finlayson, Santie English, Airdrie Hamilton, Rachel Olsen, Anne Garvey, Carolyn Johns, Ciane Lawrey, Laura Littlejohn and Amber Bold, runs from June 10 to July 25 at the Pencarrow Rd gallery.

“We’re proud of our rural pedigree at Inspirit Gallery,” says director Jenny Scown who has timed the exhibition to coincide with the National Agricultural Fieldays at nearby Mystery Creek.

Tamahere and other southern Hamilton residents on both sides of the Waikato River are planning to fight a proposal to develop a quarry in the middle of a large dairy farm on Peacockes Rd.

Update: Riverglade residents to meet, 7.30pm, Thursday, June 9 at 55a Riverglade Drive (off Newell Rd), hosts Sue and Reece Burnett.

Property owners on the east of the river say it will be an eyesore amid their river front views while Peacockes Rd residents on the west are concerned up to 180 trucks a day could travel along the country road.

Southside Sands has applied for a 10-year resource consent to excavate 600,000 cubic metres of sand from the 120ha dairy farm.