(FUNKY MUSIC) Tonight ` a shed too far. It's a very depressing sight. This shed has cast a bad shadow on neighbourly relations. Where I spend most of my time in my kitchen, I look directly on to that steel wall. That's all I see. It's a monstrosity, but it's also legal. It's changed my life. And, airplane etiquette. How much hand luggage is too much? It does make it difficult for everyone else. And is it OK to recline? Reclining is frustrating. Oh, yeah, that bothers me. Plus, sweet despair. How do you describe 'yuck'? The Milk Bottle, with milk, is headed for extinction. The next thing, they'll be taking the mint out of Minties and that pineapple flavour out of Pineapple Lumps. Copyright Able 2018 Kia ora. Welcome to the show. There are many ways to make enemies of your neighbours. Noisy dogs are a pet hate, and so are party animals, fireworks fanatics, inconsiderate parkers, wannabe musicians and permanent DIYers. At the centre of this dispute is a shed. It's big a eyesore, and it's cast a shadow over neighbourly relations in the Canterbury township of Waimate. Here's Anna. On this one-lane road, in a quiet country town, tucked away off the coast of the lower South Island, is one very big issue that's the talk of the town. Every time I go downtown, somebody will stop me and say, 'Is that bloody shed still there?' It's the sheer size of it. we presumed it was only gonna be a normal-sized shed. Didn't expect anything quite like that. The shed ` 18m long, 5m high, a deep dark shade of forest green. The biggest impact has been the loss of daylight, loss of sunlight, warmth ` just a very dark place to be in now. Mavis Pirini has lived here for 38 years, part of a small, tight-knit community that all look out for one another. Absolutely brilliant. Absolutely brilliant, yes. But recently, the sunny spot she calls home has been cast in shade. The height keeps the light, the sunlight, out, and... it's a very depressing sight. I mean, where I spend most of my time, in my kitchen, I look directly on to that steel wall. That's all I see. Her view hasn't always been like this. This is what Mavis' house looked like in 2009. This is what the empty lot next to her looked like. Well, I got the sun all day. I got the rising sun first thing in the morning, and it was sunny in here all day. People going by, walking their dogs, waving; neighbours waving. Mm. And a nice paddock? And a nice paddock ` a nice green paddock. But now... I get a very brief look at the sunshine about midday, when it goes over the top of the shed. And then it disappears quite quick, because it is low at this time of year, so I don't really see much sun at all. By the time we arrived early afternoon, the sun had finally hit the house. But Mavis' neighbours reckon that small amount of sunshine just ain't enough. I'm quite distressed at what it's done to Mavis and just how it's just affected her whole life. Like, just having your sun cut totally from your house. Yeah, it's not very pleasant to look at, and, yeah, just should go. And it's not just the lack of sunlight now the shed has arrived. I get flooding. Every time it rains from the south, it hits that wall. Because he's built the ground up, probably that much, everything just runs on to my driveway, and I've had flooding under my house. Mavis has become rather depressed about it all. It's changed my life. The problem is Mavis signed the consent form from the neighbour who wanted to build the shed. He brought it over and said he intended to build a shed for his caravan there. And, you know, for years I've known eventually something would be built there. But she never thought it would be this. He gave me the consent form, and I looked at it, and I thought, 'Yes, well, it's just a caravan shed. It'll be fine,' and I signed the consent. Here's that consent form ` a shed 17.5m by 3.6m high, within variation. Now, the height of this shed is actually a little over 5m high. but the neighbour who built it, Michael Sherriff, says there was nothing misleading about that form. And did you explain that to Mavis ` that that was actually the wall height, not the top of the building as visually she would've seen it? Mavis says the only plans she's seen were dated after she signed the consent. There was a picture on a piece of A4 paper with a small diagram of a shed that the man said it would be a shed like this. I imagined it would be the height of my house. I'd never envisaged it would be anything like we see here now. At any rate, the neighbour, Mike, reckons there's nothing wrong with the shed. How do you define the worst part of the street? You wouldn't normally be allowed to live in a shed, but there's a technicality here ` Mike is living in a caravan that's in the shed. The Waimate District Council was responsible for giving the OK to this project, and it to consider a whole lot of objectives under the district plan ` things like size and bulk, access to sunlight, visual detraction, ground coverage, loss of residential neighbours and boundary limits. And the neighbours reckon it was a fail on those counts, but the Council gave it a pass and said any effects were minor. They didn't want to talk to us on camera, but they did give us a copy of the consent decision and a statement. They said that once Mavis signed the consent form... But the other neighbours reckon they've been affected too, and they weren't consulted. No, we had no idea. No. No idea. I was horrified, actually, just because I knew how it was gonna affect Mavis, his neighbour. Um,... really disappointed. Waimate Council also says the change to the shed dimensions ` that extra height in the roof ` was a 'minor discrepancy'. Mavis reckons that's not good enough, and she's tried everything she can think of to get the shed shifted. There's been a petition... Yes, there was... I think there's 180 signatures on it. ...and a meeting with Council. But that didn't really go anywhere. I was just told that, 'The shed's there. Get used to it.' And two different real estate agents have weighed in as well. Both of them have devalued my property $40,000. But nothing's made a difference. Mavis, do you regret signing that form? Yes. Yes, very deeply I do, mm. Mavis needs legal advice, and I'm moving to Waimate, cos the council are very lenient. I'm gonna build a treehouse in every berm. But, as a result of this story, the Waimate Council has changed its consent form. They now require the person giving consent to also sign the plans. We reckon the council should go one step further and encourage people to get independent advice before they sign. Now, the Council say it's something they'll 'definitely consider'. All right, coming up after the break ` have you had a gutsful of airline arm-rest hogs? Oh, yeah, that bothers me. How about people who love to recline? Reclining is frustrating. That bugs me. I think they should ban seats that recline on the aircraft. Plus, the sweet treat that's left a bitter taste in the mouths of some. How do you describe 'yuck'? Are milky Milk Bottles about to go extinct? The next thing, they'll be taking the mint out of Minties and that pineapple flavour out of Pineapple Lumps. * Welcome back. No one likes flying cattle class. Chances are, if you travel a lot, you've probably met an overladen, seat-dropping, food-stealing, baby-cussing passenger who thinks hygiene issues should be shared. Yes, economy isn't always fun, but there are ways to make it more pleasant and bearable. We're talking etiquette, and tonight we're looking at the do's and don'ts of air travel. First up ` who gets the arm rest? I think you've just gotta kind of figure it out with whoever is next to you to kind of learn to live with one another. Whoever's there's first. Yeah. That's a good one. One person who knows better than most is Breakfast news presenter Daniel Faitaua. He's not shy with his thoughts on Breakfast, and this former flight attendant also has some opinions on flying etiquette. I always believe it's the middle person that has the right to the arm rest, over the aisle or the window seat. But often, when I sit down, I put my elbow on first, and that way I think that's my territory. It's owned. And then as I put it down, someone else does, then the nudging begins. Oh, I'm a nudger. What about people who bring on excess cabin baggage? It does make it, you know, difficult for everyone else. The plane's already kind of compact as it is. I understand why they do that, but probably they shouldn't, actually. Oh, yeah, that bothers me. Cos then you can't fit your own in the thing, and people have got them under their seats. No, that bugs me. The rules are set for a reason. If everyone abides by them, it's more helpful and more considerate of everyone else. I've never actually seen in my life the gate staff actually weigh a bag or stop a person, and I just think, 'Come on, even I can see that bag is huge. It's not even gonna get through the doors of the aircraft. 'How can you let that on?' One of the most polarising aspects of flying ` to recline or not to recline? Is there a rule? Yes. I get it, at night you should recline. But not during a two-hour flight. You think about who's behind you before you slam it back in their faces. Well, not obviously at eating time. Eh? Because otherwise your food ends up in your lap. If the person in front of you reclines, your tray tips, and the only way to solve the problem is to recline, yourself, and then you're interfering with the other person behind you. Reclining is frustrating. At least have the decency to turn around and see if there is someone sitting behind you and then maybe say, 'I'm just gonna put my seat back.' But especially when they just recline and they stay in that position, when the meals come out, that's the most frustrating time of all. And then when the meals are put on the tray, they put the seat up, and of course the tray moves, and your food's everywhere. So I'm not a big fan of recliner` I think they should ban seats that recline on the aircraft. Kids on flights are OK, but what about noisy kids? As long as the parents do their best. You know, I think there's a certain amount of patience that's required of other people. Just as long as they're not obnoxious and beating everyone up or throwing things, then, yeah. As a dad, I have noisy kids. It's often embarrassing. And sometimes you worry about what everyone else is thinking. And not many people pick it up. But when there is a noisy child, you do... I do` I give that glance where I'm just like... It's that glance where you just look at them and think, 'Come on.' But often the crew will come and help out. But if not, maybe you should get up and just ask if you can help the parent out. Maybe take the child from them and have a walk up and down the aisles to keep them quiet if you can. D'you know what I love about flying? (LAUGHS) The person beside you. The friend you haven't met yet. I love chatting with the person beside you. D'you know what? That just does not surprise me at all with you, Hado. Yeah. Avoid Hadyn if you're flying. Even when they don't want to be talking. Just keep talking. Yeah, I know that feeling. Continuing with our transportation theme, we now turn our attention to parking meters. Fun fact ` Auckland was the first city to introduce them back in 1953. Half an hour would set you back 3p, which is, as we all know, roughly 70c in today's money. Now the average parking price in Auckland has climbed to $3 an hour. What?! Now, here's some more fun facts ` Auckland City Council takes in more than $17 million a year. But it's not even gold medal. Gold medal goes to Wellington, that gets $18 million. Dunedin City Council ` nearly $6 million. Christchurch ` $4.5 million. And Hamilton ` lift your game, Hamilton ` just under $2 million in parking money. Tauranga recently went high-tech, but their new system has got some locals crying foul. Here's Hannah. Jeremy here races drones ` this kind of thing. It's an adrenaline-rush, highly-competitive hobby, and, of course, like any addictive kind of sport, it can be expensive. (CRASH!) Jeremy's also a full-time student. So between that and this high-tech hobby, money's tight ` so tight he's come to Fair Go with a gripe over a dollar. All I want ` and I hate to coin a phrase ` is a fair go. The problem is nothing as exotic and interesting as drone racing, but it is something almost all of us can relate to. It's about parking charges. So you're spending a bit of money on those meters? Probably around $6 to $12 a day. Jeremy uses Tauranga Council parks three days a week. He's studying computer science at his local tech, which is right in the middle of the CBD. We have no student parking available to us, so the only option is to use the Tauranga City parking. About two months ago, Jeremy had just paid for an afternoon's parking to attend classes. And as I was about to walk away, something just clicked in my head that the math didn't add up on what I'd been charged. And then I went back, and I tried the transaction again, just to see what was happening when I was pushing the button. In Tauranga here, we have a parking system allows you to pay at any meter in this city. And you enter your license plate number, and you enter a time period, and you pay in 30-minute intervals. So you pay $1 for every 30-minute interval. To encourage people to come into the CBD for shopping at the end of the day, the meters stop charging at 3pm. This particular day, I got to 2.34pm and hit the button once more, and instead of going up by $1, it went up by $2. Jeremy tried several other meters ` same thing. So he videoed it on his phone. You can see the price go up in $1 lots per half hour, but for the final half hour, from 2.30pm, it leaps up from $6 to $8. That's $2 for the final half hour. So on each of those meters, potentially, the Council was making an extra...? Making an extra dollar for everyone who paid until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Jeremy started emailing and phoning Council to alert them to the problem. He also sent them his video. To try and help the Council in fixing and finding where the issue was. What Jeremy got back was a reference number ` 717838 ` and a promise. 'I have passed your video on to our By-laws and Parking Department. They will contact you shortly.' I was quite expecting an answer of, 'We can't go into that with you; 'it's sensitive; we need to run some stats; we need to work out who we need to pay.' Four weeks later, he'd heard nothing, so he emailed again. Council replied... 'I have forwarded your enquiry to our Parking and Bylaws manager.' But nothing happened. What do you think is going on with Council here? I think they have found an issue bigger than they expected and are trying to sweep it under the mat. Jeremy emailed again and got a third promise from Council. 'I have escalated this issue to our Transportation Department. They will contact you shortly.' Now, Jeremy is a patient sort of chap ` the sort that's kind to animals... Put your coat on. ...and councils. Good doggie. But after waiting eight weeks, with only promises, even Jeremy's patience was wearing thin. What do you want from Council? All I want is them to speak to me. I do not expect my money back. I would like it back, but I do not expect it. What I expect is the same sort of level of communication that they are employed to give us. When Fair Go contacted Council, they had this explanation. The problem arose back in August last year, when parking increased from $1 to $2 an hour. But the machines were only programmed for $1 payments, up to $6 for the full day. After that, for credit card payments, you could only pay in $2 increments ` so $8, $10, $12. You couldn't make credit card payments of $7, $9 or $11. Council say this is the first complaint they've had about this, and they are fixing it. Some people will be saying, '(SCOFFS) It's a dollar, mate.' It's a dollar. It's a dollar, but it's principle. Jeremy wants to know if anyone's been overcharged. Council says they haven't been. And Jeremy also wants complaints like his sorted sooner. The Tauranga City Council has a lot of bigger problems that they're dealing with ` and we all know this ` but if they can't fix the smallest and simplest of problems, how can we trust them to fix the biggest problems? So the Tauranga Council have apologised to Jeremy about the lack of communication. They agree they should be able to get the little things right, and this time, they didn't. Good work, Tauranga Council. Don't mess with Jeremy. Right, coming up after the break, we announce the topic of the Kids' Ad Awards and pay homage to a much-loved lolly. The country mourned. That was the death of the Milk Bottle. But are milk bottles with real milk really gone for good? I can help you with that! Is hope really lost? These are amazing! But be warned ` what the lolly man giveth, the lolly man can also take away. (CHUCKLES) Welcome back. What is it about lollies that fill us with childhood nostalgia? Oh! Takes me back. Raspberries and Blackberries. Remember those? Pineapple Lumps, and of course your old Tangy Fruit ` part missile, part sweet. Can't get those any more. I love Snifters. You can't get those any more. What?! Spearmint Leaves, Milk Bottles, Milk Shakes ` love those. Oh, I've got some bad news for you. Cos sadly, one of the milky classics is sliding towards extinction. For the past three years, Tina Parkin has been going cold turkey. Here in a campground, in her caravan, in Kaiteriteri, she's been doing it tough. It was very hard. She didn't give up sugar, gluten or even wine. For three years she's gone without... Milk Bottles. Like bottles of milk? No, Milk Bottle lollies. Tina's tried filling her life with Jet Planes and jelly beans, but it wasn't the same. Nothing could beat the original Milk Bottle. How did this happen? Well, three years ago, Pascalls stopped putting milk in Milk Bottles. Tina wrote to us outraged. The next thing, they'll be taking the mint out of Minties and the pineapple flavour out of Pineapple Lumps. Pascalls responded, saying it was safety. How do you describe 'yuck'? And I said, 'You do realise that people that have a milk allergy 'are not gonna buy a lolly called a Milk Bottle.' Today it still stings. The country mourned. That was the death of the Milk Bottle. Then, a few weeks ago, Tina went three caravans down to Suzy's for a catch-up. They got talking treats. I really miss the original Milk Bottle. And Suzy said... I can help you with that. Wait right there. So she headed straight for her pantry. Ooh, she's gonna be so happy! These are amazing. They're made with New Zealand milk, and they're made in Oamaru. Suzy had found them in one shop in New Plymouth and wanted more, so she wrote to the manufacturer who said... They're not gonna make them any more, because they don't think anyone in New Zealand wants them. There's no demand for them. I was gutted, and I knew Tina would be too. So to solve the great Milk Bottle mystery, we have come all the way to... Oamaru ` which just happens to be unofficial confectionery capital of New Zealand. Bet you didn't know that. I've just learnt it. After Cadbury left Dunedin, this is the last full-scale confectionery factory left in New Zealand. Today they're making Jet Planes, chocolate fish and their original-recipe pineapple chunks ` not lumps. Can't go past the chunk ` not the lump. That's Brent Baillie ` general manager, Rainbow Confectionery. We do lollies for everybody; you just don't know we do them. And after quite a peruse, we found an elusive real-milk Milk Bottle in Brent Baillie's office. Product-testing is an important part of journalism (!) (LAUGHS) Brent says they'll continue to make the Milk Bottle, but people have to want them, and supermarkets have to want to stock them. If New Zealanders want real milk in their Milk Bottles, that's what we'll make. If the supermarkets want to buy the real-milk Milk Bottles, that's what we'll give them. Today, in Brent's lab, they're testing real-milk Milk Bottles for the Chinese market. This is the lab. These have been hand-dosed in here. It's a trial product ` trying to get the right texture. Apparently the Chinese like them softer. Brent says our nation's health is at risk. Milk's good for your teeth. You know that, eh? I think Brent's had a couple of Bottles too many. Man, I was 20 kilos lighter when I started here. Even if real-milk Milk Bottles end up being exported to China,... Look at that! ...Tina says she's got a way around it. We'll most probably have to import them. This is not ideal. So Tina and Suzy are urging people to demand real-milk Milk Bottles at their supermarket. New Zealand does not know that the milk bottle is out there. Tina's got a plan B ` a secret stash under her caravan couch. Apparently, away from temptation. (THUD!) Quite a wee way from temptation. She's worried the Milk Bottle will go the way of the Snifter, the Sparkle and the Tangy Fruit,... We're mourning again. ...binned for good. So, those are some of my favourite lollies in the world. And... where are they? You didn't bring any back for me! Shall we move on? (LAUGHS) Let's move on. Let's move on. Because it is time for the big announcement. The Fair Go Kids' Ad Awards are back, and this year's theme is a real doozy. It's tourism. We want you to sell your special slice of New Zealand and convince your fellow New Zealanders to come to your favourite playground, park, beach, mountain, town or city. Yes. The more visual, the better. So, parents, teachers and kids, get creative. We'll have more details for you in the following weeks. Ok, that's the show, but we're always here to help. Our programme is all about you at home, so if you've got a wrong you want made right, or you feel like you're not getting a fair go, please drop us a line. We're on Facebook, or you can email us. Or write to us. Thanks your for watching. I'm off to Oamaru to get some more Milk Bottles. Until next week,... BOTH: ...po marie. Copyright Able 2018