Taumarunui challenged to think about how town could look and function

There was a fantastic turn-out to the launch of the Taumarunui Town Centre Concept Plans tonight (Mon 5 Dec) with local residents keen to see what a vision of their township could be like.

Landscape Architects Bespoke who were contracted to produce the concept plans were on hand to talk the crowd through the design ideas and also took comment and some questions from the audience.

Bespoke Principal Landscape Architect and Director Lee Brazier said that they saw themselves as ‘scribes’ in the process in trying to capture and reflect what is important to the people of Taumarunui in the concept designs.

Mr. Brazier said that although they had tried as hard as possible to connect and talk with as wide a number or community interests as possible they recognize that there are a lot more ideas and views to take into account before any final plans are decided upon.

“An important reason that we are here today is to capture further community input and help ensure that what we have captured we are reflecting in the right way,” he said.

Council Chief Executive reinforced that the concept plans presented tonight were the starting point for a more detailed conversation with the community.

“Are we on the right track? is this where we want to go?” asked Mr. Manley.

“The display shop (81 Hakiaha St) will be open all week (Tuesday to Friday 3.00pm to 6.00pm and Saturday 10th 10.00am to 1.00pm) and I encourage people to come in, have a look around, and think about the concept plans then give their feedback,” he said.

“This is just a concept of how Taumarunui can work together.”

“We now need community input to ensure that we get the overall plan right before we can make a start.”

“Once we are sure we are on the right track we will put a proposal through the Annual Planning process including an idea of how much it will cost and how we might pay for it

“The first thing we need to confirm is this where we want to go?”

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