Greater Green Island Community Network worker Amanda Reid spoke at the Saddle Hill Community Board meeting in Fairfield earlier this month.
She talked about how she and network chairman and Greater Green Island Business Association member Steve Hayward spoke to a joint submission by the network and association at an annual plan hearing a few days earlier.
The submission asked the council to enhance the main street of Green Island — a section of Main South Rd.
Board member Keith McFadyen said the main street of Green Island was ‘‘quite derelict’’.
Many of the shops were empty, he said.
‘‘It’s not the prettiest of places to drive through . . .It’s just a shambles.’’
Board chairman Scott Weatherall disagreed.
‘‘It’s a lot better than it was 10 years ago and it’s vibrant.’’
Far fewer shops were empty and its businesses had more to offer, he said.
Ms Reid said the council’s transport team had signalled it would resurface the main street in the next 18 months.
Mr Weatherall said potholes in the road needed to be repaired sooner.
Ms Reid said the submission asked the council to review road safety in the main street, such as employing speed mitigation measures and a review of the intersection near the new NPD service station.
The location of pedestrian crossings and availability of parking, including installing disabled access in the main street, needed to be reviewed.
The new roundabouts linking Green Island and Sunnyvale were ‘‘gorgeous’’ but had not stopped heavy vehicles using the main street.
The submission asks for beautification of the area, including a review of facilities such as children’s play areas, public transport, public toilets, seating, rubbish bins and burial of overhead cables.
About 14 years ago, the council removed two signs saying ‘‘Welcome to Green Island’’ from the street, near the Commercial Tavern and Harraway & Sons.
She hoped the council could find the signs, freshen them up and reinstall them as part of the project, Ms Reid said.
Business owners in Green Island had spent millions of dollars investing in their commercial premises.
‘‘Now we want the council to invest in our community.’’
Mr Hayward, speaking to the Taieri Times on the footpath in Main South Rd last week, said the council had been promising to improve the main street since the 1980s and had failed to deliver, which was ‘‘frustrating’’.
‘‘The council has had a lot of changes of staff and in priority . . .All the things we’ve been promised have been hot air.’’
Fresh Choice supermarket had been operating more than three years, the new roundabouts for nearly a year and the new playground for more than six months, so now was the time to act and deliver on past promises, he said.
Comments
Why on earth would the council want to spend any of our rates money in doing up a place where people already live, work, spend, and play? The bridge to nowhere is far more important.
Green Island has a particular continuity. The villa on lower Church Street was there in 1960, with open land up the hill. It was relatives' home and I stayed there. Obviously, I was not very old.
There was a cinema. There was not a motorway.
Let us face it, most of ex-retail Dunedin's streets are in a similar or worse situation. Our retail areas are showing their age and the lack of patronage & insurance will leave these builds to rot because the DCC will not allow cost effective redevelopment.
Why not pull down large swaths of Princess St, Green Island & King Edward St and replace with mixed use (retail below & apartments above) just like any other city? Answer: DCC rules. They say by their actions- "let us build out Mosgiel/Outram, destroy productive farmland in the process whilst these older areas fall further in disrepair." This council has got their thinking caps backwards.
The current council is not interested, too busy pandering to the needs of a minority group who only use what has been built for them on sunny days.....
hec you got one street / in dis repair we have a town where I am........