Unfortunately our planned speaker was ill so we spent the time sharing what each group had been up to and had planned for the next few weeks and months.
This was a great discussion covering the rebuild at Oaklands School as part of the Canterbury Schools Rebuild, traffic and speeding and the need to engage as a community in the long term plan to ensure that Halswell gets a fair representation in funding for future facilities and infrastructure to support our growing community.
Halswell Hall
Judith outlined that the Hall now has a 5 year strategic plan in place covering long term plans, maintenance schedules etc.
The Hall is currently running a Spring Bulb fundraiser - details can be found on the facebook page or by emailing Judith for orders. Judith is hoping to be at the Halswell Market on 28th Feb to promote this and take orders.
Halswell Menzshed
Adrienne said the MenzShed is going very well and has been running for approx ⅚ years now.
Roger Spicer is managing the Shed and doing a very good job of getting out and networking with local groups and maintaining and growing the groups community focus. They are working on lots of projects both at the Shed and around the community and are always open for groups who need some help with building projects to make contact.
Friendship Club/Garden Club
Robyn said that the friendship club has just celebrated their 12th Birthday.
They have monthly meetings at the Library and in between have monthly coffee meetings and outings.
The Garden Club also meets monthly and is going well.
Halswell Lions
Peter outlined that the Halswell Lions are an established local group and are looking at networking with as many local groups as possible. They hold their own events - Carols in the Quarry for example as well as supporting other local events like the Celebrate Halswell event and others.
The Lions are keen to grow and develop their membership and would like to hear from community groups wanting/needing support with events and activities that they can help/get involved in
Halswell Community Project
HCP exists to promote activities and events across the community and connect people regardless of who they are or where they come from. Kate and Keri outlined some of the activities that HCP run - the local market, events, school holiday activities, monthly newsletters, website, weekly coffee morning and mahjong groups and the Halswell Hub
Upcoming events to note - Halswell Market - 28th Feb; Children’s Day - 7th March.
Halswell Residents Association
Ross outlined some of the work of the Residents association. Currently they are advocating for an increased share of facilities in the Halswell area to cope with the continuing growth. He pointed out that Halswell still has 6570 sections to be developed before it is considered completed. This is a huge number of sections and will need an investment in the infrastructure for the area.
Local Residents.
Ashley, Philippa and Mike described issues with traffic and lack of facilities/infrastructure as well as speed limits and the way Halswell Junction Road divides the community. They also pointed out that commercial hubs were either non-existent in some parts of the community or consisted of very similar shops. For example - Longhurst is almost entirely food outlets.
Tracey McLelland - MP.
Andrei said that Traceys office had been really busy with a wide variety of issues. Tracey will be holding another drop in clinic in Halswell on 13th March from 9.30 - 11.30am at the Library.
Community Board
Andrei outlined several issues that the community board are looking into at present.
Speeding - particularly around the new Richmond Avenue intersection as local residents report not feeling safe
Consultation on the Long Term Plan - Halswell needs more input into this in terms of submissions in order to get fairer access to funding for infrastructure for the future growth of the community. He felt that we needed to be getting into the hundreds of submissions to be heard and in order to help guide this we need to first gather information from the community on what is needed so that Halswell remains a desirable place to live and doesn’t become over congested due to the lack of facilities and infrastructure.
Community Facilities Network Plan - despite the map showing a huge gap in facilities in the Halswell area, the document stated that there were no geographical gaps. This has now been amended.
Land at Quaifes Road - the land has not been sold and the community board are encouraging the council to retain at least some of the land for future community facilities. They have gone back to Ngai Tahu for consultation as this was not done previously to determine any significance of the land to them. The group felt that as a community the discovery of the ancient totara stumps on this site meant that the land had a significance to the whole community. Halswell Residents Association are working with the council to get a land survey of the site to determine if there are any sizable sections of wood left that could be used as an example for significant carvings
Water - the council are in full agreement over the removal of chlorine from the drinking water and are awaiting the exemption from central government to do this.
Oaklands School
Margaret outlined the progress with the rebuild. The School is almost finished with just the last part being the hall and final landscaping. With the exception of 2 pre existing classrooms all students are now in new facilities and the new courtyard and sports court are complete. The rebuild has been 3 years in the making, the school is looking really good and it has been a positive start to the year.
There will be an official opening coming up and next steps are looking at the schools branding to incorporate the gifted name Te Kura o Ōwaka.
Oaklands currently has a roll of around 575 with 120 year 7 and 8s
Meeting closed 1.30pm
Next Meeting: March 16th - Halswell Residents Association
April 13th - Emma Pavey - Community Development advisor and Sam Holland - Community Recreation Advisor
