Following on from last month’s column, your Community Board got together to go over our strategic plan, assess how we are doing and to finalise our priorities through to the end of our term.
Ange Holt
As it is already March and council does not meet in July, there is not a lot of time left.
Firstly, we are happy with what we have achieved in what has been a challenging environment, starting with the Community Board Review followed by a very tight budget which has limited us from getting anything substantial happening.
We plan to focus on the following:
- As part of enhancing our connection with our community we will ring around the hall representatives to touch base with our rural community. We will continue to attend Kihikihi Residents and Ratepayers meetings and make every effort to attend any community event or meeting we are invited to.
- Goal two of our strategic plan was to improve internal relationships and how we worked with Councillors and staff. A big frustration we have had is around “Conflict of Interest” where it basically disables our Community Board Councillors from supporting us, because if they “sell” what we are suggesting then they can’t vote, if they do nothing then often important points are not highlighted. So, we would like to get together with the Mayor, Chief Executive and Committee Chairs to see if we can come up with a solution.
- We will continue to provide comprehensive and well considered submissions. We have a couple of big ones coming up with Local Waters Done Well and the Long Term Plan. We hope the community will make an effort to participate in both of these as they are extremely important and your feedback counts.
Urban Miners
Projects that we will continue to support will include the Clean Up Te Awamutu Day – with the next one in May, so watch out for that; Urban Miners E-waste collections (first Sunday of the month) and maintaining the Battery Recycling Station at Pak’n Save will continue. We hope to have some more conversations with Waipā Networks and Ngāti Apakura representatives to progress the Kaipaka Pa Park. Finally, the clean-up of the Ōhaupō Rd “Welcome to Te Awamutu” sign which is now underway.
Welcome to Te Awamutu sign
In addition, we will continue to support topics or initiatives that the community brings to our attention if we as a board believe we can offer value by getting involved.
In my recent chair report, I asked if it was possible to remove the sides from the perfumed garden in the Te Awamutu War Memorial Park as they were falling off, there was no garden in one side and the other was overgrown. As part of the front entrance, it looked very sad. So, thank you to the park staff who have been in and got that sorted. We are hoping to move the perfumed garden over (to allow the ANZAC soldiers to move past) and re-establish scented plants for those with no or limited sight.
Our Community Board Meeting is on April 16 – early due to Easter.
