Te Awamutu Grey Power is asking Waipā District Council to embrace its Age Friendly Policy with quarterly meetings for seniors.
Te Awamutu News 17 October 2024
Grey Power wants two for one when it comes to parking.
Te Awamutu Grey Power is asking Waipā District Council to embrace its Age Friendly Policy with quarterly meetings for seniors.
Top of the agenda is changing one hour parking limits in Te Awamutu’s main street to two hours to attract senior shoppers to the town.
The policy includes actively engaging what it calls the elderly in economic, social, and political decisions in its broad policies.
Te Awamutu Grey Power president Michael Cullen said the 2016 policy was innovative, although should be renamed Senior Friendly Policy.
“Let’s have some respect here,” he said.
Michael Cullen
Cullen said a council crackdown on hour long parking restrictions was driving older motorists who wished to spend time in town away.
“We realise people parking all day is an issue and would like to take a proactive approach to getting this changed,” he said.
One hour was not enough time for a haircut and coffee, he said.
He called for the local branches of the likes of 60s Up Movement, Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Lions Club, Menzshed, Returned and Services Association and Rotary Club to be invited to the meetings.
“I’m encouraging these groups in the Te Awamutu area to have their say.”
Cullen was also keen to see community groups work closer together.
60s Up Movement president Lloyd Jackson supported Cullen’s call for quarterly meetings.
“It won’t do any harm,” he said. “The more talk the better.”
Grey Power wants two for one when it comes to parking.
“The 60-minute limit is crazy. If you go out to a coffee shop and you have not seen somebody for a while, you will be in there for an hour and a half,” Jackson said. “When people go out, they don’t want to be pushed around.”
Jackson called for more mobility parking spaces in the town.
Shane Walsh
Te Awamutu Business Chamber chief executive Shane Walsh said the chamber had surveyed retailers and asked if they would support increasing the limit to two hours after hearing complaints about the one-hour time limit.
“We seem to be getting no pushback from them at all,” he said.
The chamber approached Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board chair Ange Holt with its findings and the issue will be discussed at the October 25 board meeting.
Waipā deputy mayor Liz Stolwyk supported Te Awamutu Age Concern’s call for quarterly meetings, and extending parking limits in Te Awamutu’s main street.
Liz Stolwyk
“I have been driving that Age Friendly Policy,” Stolwyk said.
“I am a huge supporter of Grey Power getting together. The meetings in the format they were in need a refresh, and that’s what Michael Cullen is suggesting.”
Stolywk said the best people to decide parking limits was the community.
“I would certainly support a change,” she said.
When Stolwyk, a dairy farmer and manager at Lake Karāpiro, comes to town she has a large list and a short time limit to tick it off.
“Sixty minutes for Te Awamutu, which is largely servicing an agricultural and horticultural industry, is not enough. I was in Te Awamutu at 8.30am today for a coffee meeting and before I knew it my time was up.”
Grey Power wants two for one when it comes to parking.
