Plan for business investment district
This month we were joined in the public forum by Te Awamutu Business Chamber chief executive Shane Walsh to bring us up to speed with their latest initiative — to create a Business Investment District (Bid) in the Te Awamiti CBD through the use of a targeted rate.
Shane told us this had been successfully executed in other parts of the country and he was confident Te Awamutu could share the same success. It is reliant on landlords and tenants supporting the targeted rate to raise funds that can be then used to run promotions, events and activities in the CBD. We hope they are successful and we see some more vibrancy added to our main street and surrounds.
We had a small agenda this month with only a handful of items — these included an update on the decisions made in the Public Places Bylaw and the Dog Control Policy and Bylaw. We also received an update from the transportation team.
We reallocated some minor funding to the battery recycling project and also gave The Te
Awamutu Football Club $2000 from the discretionary fund for their sports fields.
In regard to our submissions and what things we influenced, we are delighted to see the addition of “cruising” and a definition added to the public places bylaw to help curb gatherings of people in cars on country roads doing burnouts and being a general nuisance. This addition to our bylaw will give police more power to be effective and deal with those hanging about watching and getting in the way of people trying to get past.
The council is asking for feedback from residents of the roads and areas are impacted by these groups of cars so if you have the opportunity to feedback please do.
For those who have noticed stainless frames popping up out of the footpath around town, they are, indeed, bike stands. We are a bit disappointed they do not match the other street furniture however it is nice to see more bike stands available. The style is also more compatible with electric bikes.
The Community Board is keen to see the pots up the main street removed as they are dirty and frequently used for less than savoury purposes. We are hoping this will come to fruition before too long.
We are hoping that as a result of a number of parties emailing Waka Kotahi, including ourselves and staff, we will see some improvements at the Sloane St roundabout.
We have seen the signs repaired. Waka Kotahi has acknowledged there is an issue with big trucks so hopefully, it is not too far away before it gets some well overdue attention.
I met with staff to investigate the safety of the new playground at the Rewi Maniapoto Reserve.
We had a good discussion and there were some good ideas to mitigate the risk of our children getting out onto what is a busy road.
Unfortunately, it was decided that as the road is going to be narrowed, parking prevented along this stretch of road and the footpath/cycleway widened this would be enough to deter children and improve visibility should a child run out into the road. At this stage, nothing is going to be done. All we can do is recommend children be attended by a watchful and quick-moving caregiver.
For those interested in the Te Awamutu Memorial Park updates, it has been indicated that the request to hold off on further development will not be addressed until early next year. Staff and managers are currently busy with Long Term Plans.
The CommSafe Kihikihi Community Day went well. We received some great feedback and had some happy people receive a voucher for completing our small survey. Thank you to all the businesses that provided those vouchers. All of the community board who were able to attend spoke favourably about the event and enjoyed being out in the community.
We have been working with the Te Awamutu Business Chamber to do a feasibility study on the Holmes Garage Market and Community Space on Mahoe St. This is progressing well and so far all the feedback has been very supportive, with some great ideas coming forward as well. If you have a group or organisation that might be interested in having a space for events, then please get in touch — we would love to hear from you. Just give me a call or email – 0274 395744 or angela.holt@waipadc.govt.nz
It is the last Urban Miners Collection for 2023 this weekend, Sunday, from 9am to 11am at the Te Awamutu Rugby and Sports Club carpark, so if you have any E-waste, please bring it along.