There’ll be a community planting day at Papanui Bush from 9am on Saturday 7 June 2025. If you’d like to help, meet under the oak tree next to the BrainTree car park off Langdons Road. Tools provided, just turn up in weather-appropriate clothing and sturdy shoes.
Applications are open until 30 May for the Council’s Strengthening Communities Fund.
This fund supports community-focused organisations whose projects contribute to the strengthening of community wellbeing in the Christchurch City and Banks Peninsula area. Local applications will come to the relevant Community Board for a decision, while citywide projects are referred to the Council.
Details of $568,245 in Community Board grants in 2023/24 in the Papanui-Innes-Central area are shown below to give a sense of the size and nature of grants.
The Local Government Commission has upheld ECan’s final proposal for representation arrangements for the 2025 local election onwards.
This means that Papanui Ward moves into ECan’s Christchurch Central/Ōhoko constituency from the North-East/Ōrei constituency. Residents in Papanui Ward will find themselves voting for Regional Councillors who will represent an area comprised of Papanui, Fendalton, Riccarton, and Central Wards.
This will also perhaps impact which constituency aspiring Regional Councillors living in Papanui choose to stand in.
Consultation is open on the Council’s draft Local Alcohol Policy. This follows the collection of public through an early engagement process in February/March this year.
The draft policy includes: 9pm closing for off-licence retailers (including bottle stores & supermarkets); a freeze on new off-licences in high deprivation areas; and restrictions on new bottle stores near sensitive sites such as schools and addition centres.
Options that were considered but not carried forward into the daft include a reduction in trading hours for on-licences in suburban areas, and a one-way door restriction for venues.
In addition to the forest planting plans for Murchison Park (see separate post), 62 new trees are propsoed for Papanui Domain. The sports fields are retained, with plantings around the outside of the Domain, increasing canopy cover from 40% to 55%.
The proposal is open for feedback until 26 May 2025.
Murchison Park is set to be largely converted from mown grass to native forest under the Murchison Forest Park Restoration Plan. The planting plan includes 16,700m2 of new native forest, which will see canopy cover increase from 24% to 60%.
The proposal is open for public feedback until 26 May 2025.