Think Papanui’s curator Simon Britten rounds up stories from the past week:
We’ve had an update from the Council on the Main North Road bus priority project. This project was approved by Council last year and will deliver a full-time northbound bus lane between Winston Ave and Grassmere St, signalisation of the Grassmere / Main North Rd intersection, and a number of other changes. Construction is expected to run from July to November 2019.
After redrawing and re-redrawing names, I was relieved to finally track down contactable recipients for Think Papanui’s ‘2,000 likes’ Kmart promotion.
School Trustee elections are coming up soon. At the time of sending this email nominations will be closing for most schools. Voting will take place late May / early June.
Top post of the week was an analysis of the traffic impacts of Kmart’s move to Papanui, and of the other retail stores in the Langdons Road development. Our Community Board has been advised that traffic issues will be addressed in the next stage of the development, but there’s no budget for lights at the increasingly busy Langdons/Greers intersection, and no requirement to implement them quite yet.
I attended both the first and second consultation meetings on the Harewood/Gardiners/Breens intersection this week. I have my own thoughts on the proposals and will be making a submission in due course, but on Think Papanui my priority is to promote awareness and encourage all interested people to get involved, regardless of their opinion. The meetings were the most well-attended of any Council consultation sessions I’ve been to, and I noted that both times a number of attendees expressed frustration that the format didn’t allow for ‘town hall’ style Q&A.
The Waipapa/Papanui-Innes Community Board met this morning. Earlier this week I posted an overview of the Board’s agenda for the meeting.
Christchurch Police have posted a warning of an increase in opportunistic burglaries and vehicle thefts in our area. See the Police’s post and web page for more information and advice.
If you read this email before 6pm Friday, consider calling in to the Papanui Library for the opening of the 2019 Polyphony youth art exhibition. I’ll be there – come & say hello if you can. While I haven’t been directly involved, I’m proud to work for Te Ora Hou Ōtautahi – the local youth and community development organisation behind Polyphony.
Comment policy reminder:
Think Papanui’s comment policy is available as a pinned post on the Think Papanui Facebook page. I encourage engagement with Think Papanui’s content but comments that are directly insulting or otherwise breach the comment policy will not be left up. Thanks for keeping the conversation civil.
Coming up:
Next Friday 31 May there’ll be a joint Community Board meeting to consider submissions received on the draft plan to manage downstream effects of the Christchurch Northern Corridor (CNC). The meeting is expected to make a recommendation that will then go to the 13 June meeting of the full Council for a final decision.
Feedback:
Feedback is always welcome on Think Papanui’s content, either on Facebook or Instagram, or directly to me.
With warm regards
Simon Britten