Year: 2025

Final nominations have been announced for Christchurch City Council and Environment Canterbury Regional Council (ECan).

Candidates nominated to represent Papanui Ward as City Councillors are Simon Britten and incumbent Victoria Henstock.

Papanui candidates for Community Board are Simon Britten (incumbent), and Ashleigh Feary & Harrison McEvoy.

Papanui is now part of ECan’s Christchurch Central / Ōhoko Constituency. Candidates are: Benjamin Alexander; Ross Boswell; Lindon Boyce; Alexandra Davids; Nettles Lamont; Genevieve Robinson (incumbent); and Alan Wang.

Local government elections are conducted by postal vote. For the 2025 local elections, voting documents will be delivered between 9 September and 22 September 2025, and voting closes at noon on 11 October.

For more information head to these web pages:
Christchurch City Council – Elections
Environment Canterbury Regional Council – Local elections

On Thursday 10 July, the Waipapa Papanui-Innes-Central Community Board:

• received three public forum presentations from members of the public;
• approved a change of design to the Richmond Neighbourhood Greenway Cycleway outside 45 Averill Street;
• approved a P5 parking restriction on Cranford Street near Westminster Street;
• approved a P3 parking restriction and no stopping lines on Wairakei Road adjacent to Wairakei School;
• approved a P5 Loading Zone on Caledonian Road outside Southern Cross Hospital;
• and received an area report on issues and initiatives within the Board area.

The Board will next meet on 14 August.

Click through for the full minutes:
https://christchurch.infocouncil.biz/Open/2025/07/PCBCC_20250710_MIN_9139_AT_WEB.htm

Waitomo Papanui on Cranford Street is set to open on Tuesday 22 July 2025. Think Papanui understands there’ll be a promotion running from 10am to 12 midday including a giveaway of ‘thousands of dollars’ of fuel by Waitomo Group, free coffees from Joe’s Garage, and More FM Canterbury 92.1 on site with merch and freebies.

The commissioning of the signalised pedestrian crossings at Harewood, Langdons, and Sawyers Arms Roads has been completed.

The crossings are all now operational, as are railway automatic gates at Harewood and Langdons Roads. Take care if you’re in the area as the activation of the crossings may affect traffic conditions.

The project is forecast to cost $12.6m in total, over a million dollars under budget.

From Tuesday 22 July, Grassmere Street between Grants Road and 46 Grassmere will be closed for watermain renewal work. Residential access to properties will be maintained, as will pedestrian and cyclist access, although cyclists will be asked to dismount. The Papanui Parallel shared path between Grassmere & Rutland Streets remains closed at this stage.

For more information see the Council website:
https://ccc.govt.nz/transport/works-3/show/1792

The secret’s out! Waitomo Group is set to open Waitomo Papanui at the former Caltex site on Cranford Street, which has been closed following a fire in August last year.

Summer with your Neighbours: applications for funding open now. Neighbourhood Week was the brainchild of the Shirley-Papanui Community Board (now known as the Papanui-Innes-Central Community Board), which held the first event in 1998. This popular event has grown from year to year, and has now known as Summer with your neighbours. Small subsidies are available to help cover costs and support events.

For more info and an application form, see:
https://ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/events/community-programmes/summer-with-your-neighbours

Commissioning of the signalised pedestrian crossings on Harewood, Langdons, and Sawyers Arms Roads is underway.

The Council advises that “all going well”, from Wednesday 16 July work on these crossings will be complete and all new signals will be operational. KiwiRail is completing commissioning works on the railway, and on 15 July the new crossings and railway signalling system will be tested.

Trains may be traveling more slowly during this time and on Tuesday temporary traffic lights will be used to stop traffic for up to five minutes at each crossing as commissioning takes place.

See the Council’s ‘Working in Bishopdale and Papanui’ web page for more information on the project:
https://www.ccc.govt.nz/transport/improving-our-transport-and-roads/transport-projects/bishopdale-papanui

Rotary Club of Papanui is holding a Craft Bazaar on Saturday 12 July from 9am to 5pm at Papanui High School. Stock up on fabrics, wool, buttons and embroidery!

See the Facebook event or https://www.papanuirotary.org.nz/page/bazaar for more information.

Nominations have opened for candidates in October’s local body election. To stand for election, you must be a New Zealand citizen and enrolled on the Parliamentary electoral roll. You do not need to live in the area in which you wish to stand. Nominations are open until midday on 1 August, and voting papers will be mailed out from Tuesday 9 September.

Click through for more information:
https://www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/nominations-open-for-octobers-local-body-election