Community board meeting
Last Tuesday’s meeting was a relatively short one, with only two extra items on our agenda outside of the usual: the setting of our meeting dates and the North Waipa/South Hamilton Spatial Plan. We also received a brief summary of the 70-year celebration and unveiling of the sundial at the Te Awamutu War Memorial Park.
Ange Holt
As council is hopefully to continue meeting on Wednesdays, we are going with Tuesday evenings for our Community Board meetings this triennium. We hope this will make it a little easier on our Councillors, sparing them from having meetings all day and half the night!
A partnership for the Waikato sub-region, has developed a comprehensive 30-year growth management and implementation strategy known as the Future Proof Strategy. Part of this strategy includes the North Waipa/South Hamilton Spatial Plan, which the Community Board has been asked to comment on.
We have been presented with a number of scenarios to consider, including the impact on Te Awamutu. One of the things that stood out to me was the potential of the “Fast Track,” projects where government has enabled faster processing via the Fast-Track Approvals Act. This is good in that it gets development and business started quickly, but less so in that it puts pressure on resources and the environment, and its more ad hoc nature makes good planning more difficult.
Based on the information we were given, growth and development over the next 20 years will likely be substantial. As a result, there might be an impact on us that may look like more traffic, increased numbers of people living here and commuting to work in the industrial areas such as Titanium Park by the airport—or pressure on our retail sector as new outlets open in these developing communities.
For anyone interested in seeing what is being considered in this part of the district, you can easily find it by going to our agenda on the council website, then navigating to Your Council, Meetings, agendas, minutes and livestreams.
Councillor Walsh, Board member Wood, and I were fortunate to attend the 70th birthday celebrations and unveiling of the sundial at the Te Awamutu War Memorial Park. The small park committee did a great job of creating an informative event by having participants read original speeches from the opening event back in 1955. One of the attendees commented on how much he had not known, and how some signage highlighting these interesting facts about the park—its reason for existing and the relevance of its various features—should be displayed for the public to read and learn about the Park’s history. Let’s hope we can address this, with heritage signs on our list of what we want to see reinstated around the Park and Te Awamutu.
We have no more formal meetings until February 2026, so Merry Christmas/ Meri Kirihimete! Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season from all of us at the Te Awamutu and Kihikihi Community Board.
