Community consultaion

Below is the email sent out to our Glengarry community following community consultation on Sat 29 Oct at the Community Market. Get in touch if you would like to be involved in any of the projects underway.

Hi Everyone Welcome to those of you who have just joined our email list. This email has a bit in it including some exciting developments so please have a good look.

We are happy for you to pass this information on to anyone who might be interested in being informed about what's happening. If people would like to join this email list they can contact me on phil.becs@xtra.co.nz - also if you would like to be removed from the mailing list.

We have had some great media coverage this week following our consultation at the Market on Saturday including an article in the Times on Monday and articles in The Eye and Southland Express today (Thursday).

So this email includes: 1. the results of our consultation with the community at the Market on Sat 29 Oct; 2. updates on some developments around the first impression concept; 3. update on the meetings & discussions we have had with council 4. details about the mural to go up on the Yarrow St bus shelter; 5. community garden update 6. development of a temporary art space in the shopping centre 7. a draft vision for what the group is trying to achieve

Community market consultaion On Sat 29 Oct 2911 at the Glengarry Community Market & Car Boot Sale we had a display of information we had gathered from our previous meetings about what we wanted Glengarry to look like, feel like and be like in two years time. Throughout the morning we asked people to take three stickers and identify the things that they thought should be priorities..

We had a great response from the public and surveyed about 100 people to get the results below. We had publicised this with an article in the Express as well as delivering 1000 flyers to homes in the Glengarry area.

I have listed the suggestions in order with the number of stickers next to it.

Destination shopping centre, more shops, new business (all 3 listed separately but all mean the same thing I think) 44

First impression concept 30

Fruit trees and more trees 27

Build up the market & Try to do something ab the Hargest school zone 16

Murals, sculptures and art in the area 15

Skate ramp 13

Speed bumps along some of the roads 12

More fun events for families 8

community page in the paper, decent grocery shop, tidy St competition, better signage about what's in the shopping centre, more rubbish bins, business loyalty card - 7

build a relationship with schools, kindly and sports groups & identify skills in the community 6

welcome pack for new residents 5

more tourist things, more neighbourhood support groups, promote the pub as a community gathering place, 4

These results seem to reinforce the outcomes from our previous two meetings which make filling up the shopping centre and improving the first impression of the area as the priorities.

First impression The team working on this has meet again this week with a landscape architect and will hopefully finalise some of the ideas and suggestions that have been put forward. There was great support for the idea of improving the first impression of the shopping centre from our consultation.

Council Last week we viisted council to talk with Neil Boniface about our first impression plans and other ideas for Glengarry. He was enthusiastic about our ideas which is great. We have been invited to present the plans to the council on 6 March 2012. We also had Tim Shadbolt along to the Market on Saturday and he saw the consultation work we were doing. He has asked us to come along to the next full council meeting on 22 Nov to introduce what we are doing and give the council a taste of what we will present in March.

Bus shelter mural: We visited council last week and have been alloctaed some funds to redo the mural on the Yarrow St bus shelter. Initially we approached Ascot School to see if they would be inetrested in working on this but after somediscussion with them have decided to now approach Aurora College as older students may benefit more from thiis project. Stay tuned for further details and let us know if you would like to help out with any of this - the bus shelter will need water blasted & prepared for painting and we will need helpers to get the mural done also.

Community garden: Eastside Baptist Church has started planting at their new community garden in Lithgow St - this is a great use for an empty section and it is also a great opportunity for people from the community to learn about gardening. If anyone is interested in participating in this or helping out please contact Chris at Eastside Baptist Church.

Temporary art space: Peter at the laundry has some vacant space while he waits to get his redevlopement done. In the mean time he has agreed to make this space available to artists who might wish to do their work in a different enviroment. This will help build up the vibrance in the shopping centre and provide something interesting for people to look at while they visit the shopping centre. Thanks Peter. Please get in touch with me if you are interested in this.

Draft vision: From the consultaion we have been doing I have put together the following draft vision for what we are undertaking. I am interested in feedback and suggestions about this.

The Glengarry community has a heart. Our vision is to support the people, businesses and wider community to: 1. build on the pride that people have 2. promote and highlight the vibrant and positive community that exists 3. encourage development and make it sustainable in the long term 4. meet the needs of the diverse range of people that live and work in the area.

We will do this by: 1. seeking opportunities for growth and development 2. encouraging the community to work together 3. doing things that build up pride 4. involving the people - from all walks of life 5.. seeking opportunities to build resilience 6. preserving and enhancing the dynamics and features that make Glengarry special.

What will this look like??? Green, people talking to each other and helping each other, lots of shops -uniqe, art and artists, tidy, community focused, fun, ecclectic ........ This is where we need vivid images of what we want to see...

Glengarry has a heart that beats loud and proud.