Model bulldozer to provoke action on CBD
Northern Ward Councillor Euon Murrell will plonk a toy bulldozer at his place on the council table until work starts on Porirua City?s tired shopping area. ?The council may have to be the lead movers here. ?I?m going to keep a model bulldozer on my table at the Council meetings from now until the work begins,? says Cr Murrell. The CBD revitalisation scheme is vaunted as a public-private partnership to re-establish the city as North Wellington?s premier retail destination. Plans include a new main street offering better access to the rail station, and converting Cobham Court carpark into a green sanctuary. At a public meeting last month to reveal the city?s revitalisation plans, CBD property owners asked the Porirua City Council to start one of the planned works straight-away as a show of faith. ?At the moment momentum is building, there is the desire in the council to get the job done. ?It?s not if it?s going to happen, it?s when it will happen,? Cr Murrell says. Drawing residents from surrounding suburbs back to the city centre is a major goal of the revitalisation scheme and one that Cr Murrell says is critical. ?It could well be that people associate more with their suburbs, we need to draw them [into the CBD]. ?For the area to survive we have to change what is under the canopies, we need to change the shopping experience.? Porirua City Mayor Jenny Brash says the fact one person lives in the CBD is ?absolutely? one of the city most pressing issues. ?There has been some interest in building accommodation in the city centre. ?There has been good feedback from property developers and the [Porirua CEO Roger Blakeley] has been in discussion with them. ?It is early days yet, this is a 10-year exercise and things don?t just happen overnight,? says Ms Brash. She says work should start mid-2011 and although the canopies, installed in 1994 at a cost of nearly $4 million, won?t come down ?overnight? they will gradually be phased out. ?There will be no more consultation [on the canopies], when they come down there will be provision made for shelter and for the people working there. ?This has to be done in a coordinated fashion,? she says.
