A community meeting held in the Town Hall Supper Room on the evening of Tuesday 18th March, gave the ‘town square’ proposal the nod for a one year trial. About 50 people attended the meeting including four members of the Raglan Community Board and Ward Councillor Clint Baddeley. The meeting was opened by Gillian Cox, leader of the group advocating the ‘town square’. Gillian said that the meeting would be two parts. The first part would be covering the proposal and answering questions about it, while the second part would be working on the proposal. Gillian then handed over the meeting to David Engwicht from the Creative Communities company, who has been engaged by Waikato District Council to assist with the proposal.
David Engwicht then gave an oral description of the conceptual proposal, saying that his company had evaluated the Raglan CBD with its ‘placemaking framework’ and came up with five possible projects for the area that would enhance the town for its residents. He said that the speed of traffic in the town was already lower than other similar towns and that this provided an opportunity to introduce a shared pedestrian vehicle zone, between the two raised crossings in Bow St. The idea of sharing the main street means adapting it to improve the safety and the quality of the road environment for all its users. He pointed out that for such a wide road area, the amount of space allocated to pedestrians was ‘mean’. One area of concern was the crossing from the The Shack to Blacksand Cafe. He also said it was very strange that the raised crossing on Bow St gave priority to cars when they should really give priority to pedestrians.
It became clear that the proposal is just a concept at this stage and that WDC engineering consultants are still working on coming up with some workable plans. People raised concerns about whether the deck structures would be strong enough. They were assured that all designs and work would be vetted. A request was made for permanent shelters to be provided as sun umbrellas would be blown away.
Questions were raised about access for emergency services and David Engwicht undertook to get the draft roading plans to the services as soon as possible. From comments made, it seems that although the need for trucks to turn from Bow St into Wainui Rd has been considered, the need for trucks to exit Wainui Rd still needs attention.
Rosie Worsp said, “We have a beautiful town with historic buildings, just make sure what you do isn’t tacky.”
Lisa Thomson gave a passionate plea saying that as a committed member of the ‘town square’ team she cared about the town and would make sure that what was done would suit Raglan. This was well received.
The majority of the people at the meeting seemed to give the ‘town square’ team the nod to go ahead with developing the proposal for a one year trial, with the proviso that if it was clear it wasn’t working after a few months, then it would be adapted.
The first part of the meeting ended allowing the team to work on further developing the proposal.