A coastal community on Dunedin’s south coast should seize the opportunity to smarten up its presentation, an advocate says. Brighton has gone to the head of the Dunedin City Council’s queue for neighbourhood centre upgrades, replacing Wakari after mixed feedback to plans there. Colin Weatherall is one person pleased to see Brighton is now poised for some amenity work. “If there's some money to be spent in community enhancement, let’s grab it, basically,” the former Saddle Hill Community Board chairman and former city councillor said. “Let’s have a look at the ideas and see what we can come out with.” An upgrade to the Musselburgh centre was completed recently. Wakari was next in line, but the proposal there ran into some opposition, including from the Dunedin Area Citizens Association. The council decided on Thursday to pivot to Brighton. After that, Middlemarch is set to be the next cab off the rank. The applicable programme is aimed at improving amenity in public spaces in Dunedin’s commercial centres outside the central business district. For Brighton, council staff considered there was an opportunity to create greater amenity in Brighton Rd near the dairy, cafe and boat hire to the north of the bridge over Otokia Creek. Courtesy crossings could be considered to create safer pedestrian connections between the shops and the beach. For Middlemarch, community engagement and design work is to start in the 2026-27 year. The programme was labelled a “nice to have” a few times at the council meeting. Responding to that, Dunedin Mayor Sophie Barker said the city needed to invest in its communities. If it did not “we will become dingy Dunedin and people will leave”, she said. Cr Steve Walker said investment in communities was about “signalling that we care” and took pride in them. Cr Andrew Simms congratulated staff on the results at Musselburgh. However, Crs Jo Galer and Lee Vandervis said some concerns had been raised there. Cr Mickey Treadwell said he was disappointed for Wakari, but the pivot to Brighton was appropriate. Cr Brent Weatherall said he hoped a shared path from Green Island to Brighton might progress at some stage. It need not be as high-spec and expensive as one or two others in the city, he suggested. The council voted 12-2 to substitute Wakari with Brighton and to signal Middlemarch would be next. Crs Vandervis and Russell Lund voted against. Cr Lund said it seemed the council was looking to push ahead with work that neighbourhoods had not asked for.
