Sunday, November 27, 2011

Glengarry update

Hi Glengarry Supporters! This email contains more updates about Glengarry actions and activities you could get involved in. It includes: 1. An update on the presentation to Council on 22 Nov 2. Information on how to submit to council on the 30 year plan 3. Request for help delivering the latest Good News Glengarry Newsletter 4. Community BBQ to be held on Sat 10 Dec 5. Community Arts Project update

1. Update on presentation to Council On Tues 22 Nov I presented a ten minute talk to the ICC about what has been happening in Glengarry. The city councillors were glad to hear about our plans and the consultation we have been doing. They were impressed with the leadership we have shown and look forward to hearing more from us in the future once our plans have been finalised. There was also an article in the paper on Thurs 24 Nov about the presentation.

2. Submitting to council You may have heard about the Council's 30 year plan for Invercargill - they have made a 25 min dvd all about it. In this dvd they talk about urban revitalisation of areas such as Glengarry. The council is keen for people to make submissions about this 30 year plan and I would like to encourage you all to submit about revitalising Glengarry being an important priority. The following link takes you to a page where you can watch the 25 min plan online http://www.icc.govt.nz/News/MediaReleases/BigPictureUpdate-Nov.aspx and the following email address should be used to make submissions about the plan bigpicture@icc.govt.nz Submissions will be accepted I believe until the end of December.

3. Good News Glengarry The latest newsletter has been printed and we are looking for any helpers to deliver it to homes in the Glengarry area. Please text me or email to arrange to get some newsletters. My cell number is 027 2252 664.

4. Community BBQ 10 Dec 2011 On Sat 10 Dec 11.30-1.30pm we will be holding a Community BBQ and Picnic in the playground at the shopping centre. Eastern Suburbs Tavern is kindly supporting this event by providing sausages. Thanks Barry. Please come along, bring a picnic lunch and talk to us about your thoughts about Glengarry. We will have copies of the first impression plans available to look at and comment on, information about the Lithgow St community garden and other church activities and the new art space next to the laundry will be open to hear more about the Glengarry Community Arts Project. We look forward to seeing you all there to talk about the future of Glengarry. If wet we will have the BBQ at Eastside Baptist Church.

5. Glengarry Community Arts Project The space next to the laundry has been cleared out and is ready to be used as an art space - Thanks to Peter for making this space available for this exciting project and big thanks to Caroline for getting this up and going and thanks also to Chris and the folk from last Wednesday's Soup n Toast for helping with the clear out. Caroline is after some materials to help get started with the art and also lots of people to get involved in creating art! If you enjoy art then this is your chance to make a difference and be part of something fun. The things Caroline is looking for includes egg cartons, glossy magazines, acrylic paint, cardboard, offcuts of plywood, newspapers and chicken wire. Do get in touch if you can help with this in anyway.

There are some other things happening in the area too including the Eastside Baptist Community Garden, Soup n Toast at Eastside on Wednesdays, the bus shelter mural which is being worked on with Aurora College students and the Community Market & Car Boot Sale which will be held on Sat 3 Dec and Sat 17 Dec 9.30-12.30pm.

As always please let me know if you no longer wish to receive these emails. Please pass these emails on to others who might be interested in what's happening in Glengarry and encourage others to get informed and involved. If you would like to see something happening in Glengarry get in touch and we will do all we can to support and help make things happen. If you have any skills you could use to help us with the things we are doing please also get in touch. Cheers Becs

Saturday, November 12, 2011

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.