Vital that people make submissions

Continued from page 1.

This plan is currently open for consultation, which closes on Monday 7 August.

All four Khandallah facilities have had “negative things said about them in the plan,” Mr Collingbourne says.

“We have some concerns about this plan. It says things about Onslow having too many amenities.”

“I think residents should be really concerned that they could lose all four facilities.

“We could lose community services because they [Wellington City Council staff] want a more efficient way of managing building.

“It’s about facilities rather than the services the community needs.

“I think it is really important people have their say,” Mr Collingbourne says, and that residents make submissions on the proposed Community Facilities Plan.

The importance of people making submission on the draft Community Facilities Plan was also underlined by Wellington City Councillor Diane Calvert.

“Community facilities are at the heart of any community and need to be enhanced so they are fit for the future,” Cr Calvert says.

“The ‘devil is always in the detail’ with council plans.

“So I encourage everyone to take a look at it and see whether it supports what they think needs to happen in their suburbs and what they fund for through rates.

“At the moment what I am hearing most, from the community, are concerns that the draft plan does not adequately address: the future need for community facilities in Wadestown/Wilton, the breadth of master planning required for Ian Galloway Park, certainty around the future of the Nairnville Recreation Centre, provision of facilities for gymnastics, the future use of Khandallah Library and of course once again the status of Khandallah Pool (despite the community already strongly speaking up for its redevelopment),” Cr Calvert says.

The plan is available at https:// www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/ wellingtons-community-facilities, and people can make submissions by visiting that web page.

“My concern is that they have missed the boat in this plan,” Mr Collingbourne says.

The Khandallah Town Hall has “very high utilisation”.

It is administered very well by the Cornerstone Trust, who organise bookings for the hall.

The hall, in fact, has so many bookings that when the council wants to run a meeting in Khandallah it has difficulty in finding an available time slot.

This high level of utilisation provides a “fairly strait forward defence” for its retention.

The proposed Community Facilities Plan describes the Khandallah Library as “old and small, but it is actually a historic building.”

Because of that, if the council closes the library it will not be able to demolish the building. “I’m not sure what they would do with it.”

Although the plan is negative about the Khandallah Swimming Pool, the council recently approved a plan for a major redevelopment of the pool.

“We will keep arguing that [the Khandallah Pool upgrade] has been approved and needs to go ahead,” Mr Collingbourne says.

The proposed Community Facilities Plan covers 275 community facilities throughout Wellington city, including: libraries; swimming pools; recreation centres; community centres; Marae; community spaces in city housing complexes; public toilets; and leased community facilities on council land used by sports, recreation, arts, culture and community groups.

One of the big gaps the proposed plan has identified is the need for a recreation centre in Johnsonville.

A new Johnsonville recreation centre would cater for a variety of indoor sports – including basketball, badminton, volleyball and gymnastics,. It would also include a recreation space for children.

“If people think that is a good idea, they should comment on that” and provide the feedback to the council, says Councillor Tony Randle.

“Have a look at the plan and see what is in it for your community, and if we’re missing anything please let us know,” Cr Randle says.

How good was it to be celebrating a good old home-grown festival, Matariki, last weekend.

Most of our other celebrations are to do with non-NZ events, or in the case of ANZAC day and Waitangi Day, celebrating military and political events as opposed to a naturally occurring phenomenon like the rising of a star cluster.

I recently hosted a meeting which included local property developers and representatives from the City and Regional Councils. The background for the meeting was the need to ensure all people involved in providing more housing in our electorate, whether it be those building them or those regulating and permitting that building, understand the issues which govern the ability to build the houses everyone agrees we need.

There are essentially two types of development; greenfields and brownfields. Greenfields means building on currently undeveloped land, typically ex farmland on the edges of current urban areas, where infrastructure like sewers, water supply and other essential services don’t exist are usually built by the developer.

We’re a pretty young nation, with humans having only been here since around the 1200s, as opposed to most lands which have had human settlement for many millennia. That means we’re still working out who we are and our place in the world. The uniqueness of the Matariki festival, and being able to share it among all the cultures which are part of the rich mosaic which is New Zealand society, will go a long way towards forging our identity.

Brownfields development means rebuilding on existing sites, and there has been considerable discussion in recent times around how much intensification should be allowed in existing suburbs, especially changing of height limits to allow for more apartments.

Those watching the international scene will note how New Zealand is walking a delicate tightrope to keep ourselves onside with

Both have their advantages and disadvantages; the Regional Council in particular see their role to prevent more runoff and other material ending up in our harbours, especially the Porirua harbour in the case of development north of Johnsonville and Newlands. The Wellington City Council are concerned that the existing infrastructure cannot handle the pressure it comes under when new housing areas are developed. Existing infrastructure is aging and needs upgrading across our city, as evidenced by recent pipe failures. An advantage of intensification of existing areas means more people, therefore more ratepayers to pay for those upgrades. the world’s bigger nations. It’s something small nations with a strong sense of who they are and their place in the world can do.

I attended a multi-cultural Matariki festival in Johnsonville last week where many of the cultural groups which have largely arrived in the last generation were present. They all have their own cultural and religious festivals and significant days, so everyone enjoyed the non-political nature of Matariki.

Developers of course need to make a profit, and wish to keep their compliance costs as low as possible. Many believe the Resource Management Act is too cumbersome. We as government for our part have undertaken to rewrite that act.

The feedback was good, but the success will be when there are sufficient affordable houses to meetdemand. That is certainly my goal as your MP.

Fireworks make more sense in mid-winter than in November when the Guy Fawkes event it recognises was a failed attempt to blow up the English Parliament many centuries ago.

That, and of course having a vibrant and functioning Johnsonville Shopping Centre we can all be proud of.

There’s plenty to be getting on with.

I hitchhiked around South Africa a few years ago, and when asked what my overriding impression of that country was, I replied that I was glad my ancestors chose New Zealand, or their problems would be mine, and I’m still very glad they chose New Zealand.