Greetings from your Community BoardBoard Chair, Karolin Potter Message from the ChairLike many of you, our Waihoro/Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board has been busy over the past few weeks with submissions on the Draft Long Term Plan, Draft Climate Change Strategy, Draft Development Contributions Policy and the Representation Review Initial Proposal. We are aware of the importance of the Council hearing our views on all of these important proposals and we'd like to thank everyone who took the time to give their feedback. A reminder that if you ever want to speak about an issue in your community that you would like to discuss with the Community Board, we have a Public Forum slot at they beginning of every meeting where you can speak to the Board for five minutes. The Board especially enjoys this part of the meeting, hearing from residents about their concerns and joys in their neighbourhood. Winter is on the way and the recent wet weather is a good reminder to check that your drains and gutters are clear of leaves, to prevent flooding in and around your property. If you'd like to help increase the biodiversity of our city, take action for climate change or feel good doing something with friends and family, remember that winter is the season for planting, and there are events at parks all over the city – look for one near you! Highlights of our latest meetingOur Community Board met on Wednesday 19 May. Some highlights of our meeting included hearing from local residents Kate Hodgins and Hugh Nicholson, who spoke about safety issues on Rapaki Road, as part of our Public Forum. We also approved funding for some worthy community projects from our 2020/21 Discretionary Response Fund, including Rowley Resource Centre and Ngaio Marsh House and Heritage Trust. We also received the Waihoro/Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board Area Report for May 2021, which gives us an overview of all the great work
being done in our area. Community updatesSt Martins Volunteer Library Enhancements Hoon Hay Community Centre Share your views on the Cashmere Tennis Club Lease renewal Public consultation on the Cashmere Tennis Club Lease renewal is open until Wednesday 23 June. To read more and make a submission, visit ccc/have your say Funding for basketball half-court project Our Board recently awarded $45,000 towards a basketball half court in the ward area – the location is still to be confirmed. The Board has heard from residents in the area for some time about the desire to see a new half court in the area. Community Pride Garden AwardsThe 31st Waihoro/Spreydon-Cashmere Community Pride Garden Awards ceremony was held on 12 May 2021 at Addington Events Centre. The annual awards acknowledge local residents who have contributed to Christchurch's garden city image by beautifying their streets and gardens. In total, 133 awards were made for outstanding gardens in the Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board area for 2021, as judged by Christchurch Beautifying Association judges. 62 awards were presented at the ceremony and 71 awards will be posted to recipients who were unable to attend. This year, the Community Board and Beautifying Association also presented special certificates acknowledging those who had won awards annually for 10 years (13 recipients), 20 years (5 recipients), and 30 years (1 recipient). There were also prize draws for 10 great prizes kindly donated by local businesses. Photo caption: George and Merle of Spreydon were presented with their 30 Year Awarded certificate by Community Board Deputy Chair, Lee Sampson. Sign up and share our newsletterSharing is caring, and we'd love you to share our newsletter on your social media channels. You can cut and paste this URL to link to the online version of this newsletter. Grant for Ngaio Marsh HouseThe heritage home of New Zealand's Queen of Crime has received funding from the Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board to help with insurance costs. Funding helps Rowley Resource Centre shineMore people will get to know about the great work going on at the Rowley Resource Centre, thanks to a grant from the Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board. The Rowley Resource Centre recently received a grant of $11,734 towards towards promoting the Centre to the wider community. This grant is also towards wages for an events advisor. Makeover for Farnley ReserveAll the works requested by Friends of Farnley Reserve have been completed, such as: rotten steps from the Centaurus road shops to the sculpture circle have been replaced and repaired, replacement of rotten seats in the sculpture circle ANZAC Day ServiceBoard members attended ANZAC Day Service at Sydenham Cemetery and at Victoria Park on Sunday, 25 April. Pioneer pools re-open for Queen's Birthday weekendPopular pools at Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre will reopen at 5.30am on Friday 4 June in time for Queen’s Birthday weekend following extensive maintenance work. The main pool, wave pool, spa and sauna have been closed since last November so that the pool plant, roof and air-conditioning system can be repaired and to allow for earthquake strengthening of the pool hall. Come along to our Adult Bicycle Skills sessionsCouncil have teamed up with Odlin Cycle Coaching to offer free bike skills sessions until the end of June. These are opportunities to build confidence and skills riding in different road environments and to get personalised advice on riding safely. The course is split into three 45 minute sessions, over three weeks. Check out the session times, along with more information here: · christchurchcyclecoaching.co.nz/workshops · facebook.com/Adult.Bicycle.Skills.Training Spaces are limited, so please book once you’re comfortable committing to a time. The course will be run in small groups, so there’s plenty of personalised advice in a supportive environment. The team are very experienced in catering the course to the meet the needs of the group. Cashmere/Hoon Hay intersection upgrade underwayWe need to manage traffic on Hurunui Street and Worsleys Road, so our contractors can work safely. We’ll need to close one lane of Hurunui Street and Worsleys Road and will have traffic management in place so you’ll know where to go. Read the latest works update or check out the project webpage for more details or chat to our friendly contractors. Thanks for your patience while we upgrade the intersection. Cobble clusters create new hideaways for native fish‘Cobble clusters’ added to the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River are breathing life into the river by creating new habitats for native fish. More than 6000 stones and boulders have been used to create the cobble clusters at seven sites along the river between Barrington Street and Waltham Road. Dyers Pass Road safety improvements to finish in AugustUnexpectedly soft soil conditions is slowing down work on installing the Dyers Pass Road safety barriers, pushing completion of the project out by about two months. The work to install the 3km of safety barriers is now expected to be completed at the end of August. Perfect time to clean your drainsWith autumn here and wind and rain on the way, drains can quickly become blocked with leaves. You can help avoid flooding around your property and street by removing any leaves that are clogging drains. Did you know that all the stormwater from your house (roof and driveway) goes into your street gutter and then down the drain and into the nearest river? At this time of year, leaves can be a big problem by putting lots of nutrients into the stream and rivers – feeding bad bacteria and making it hard for plants, fish and insects to live in the waterway as it deteriorates the oxygen available. To stop leaves getting into our streams and rivers, you can rake the leaves on your lawn, driveway and roadside, then put them in the green bin. No more recycling confusion!Standing at your bin wondering what one your takeaway coffee goes into? Our bin app takes the guesswork out! The app’s got a huge list of items you can search to see what bin they belong in. Great if you’re not completely sure about where an item belongs! The bin app is a one-stop shop for all information about our red, yellow and green bins. Enter your address to receive personal notifications about changes to your bin collection date and reminders on what bin to put out. Along with the super helpful search tool, you can also look up information on your nearest dump, or learn how to replace, change or report a bin. The app is available to download for free from the Apple Store and Google Play. Check out this video to learn more! Book in for fresh fun as KidsFest turns 30Christchurch’s much-loved KidsFest will celebrate 30 years of entertaining, teaching and connecting children in July. The activity-packed winter school holidays festival – popular with both parents and children alike – will power up from 10 July, with bookings open from Monday 31 May. Date set for Matariki Fireworks SpectacularA date has been set for Christchurch’s first ever Matariki Fireworks Spectacular. New Port Hills mountain bike track moves step closerA new mountain bike track is a step closer to being constructed in a popular part of the Port Hills. Christchurch City Council has agreed to make changes to the Montgomery Spur Reserve Management Plan so that a new intermediate grade mountain bike track can be built to ease pressure on Rapaki Track. Council moving to better protect native trees and plantsChristchurch City Council wants feedback on a proposed District Plan change to better protect and maintain indigenous vegetation across the district. From Wednesday, 19 May, the proposed plan change can be viewed during opening hours at any Council service centres or libraries. It can also be viewed online at ccc.govt.nz/planchange7 from 19 May. Submissions must be received before 5pm on 21 June 2021. Applications now open for Christchurch Heritage Festival 2021Have you got a great idea for an event for this year’s Christchurch Heritage Festival? Applications are now open for this year’s festival! We’re reaching out to community groups, businesses and individuals who are interested in running an event – it could be a walk, talk, performance or tour. If you would like to know more about what’s involved in taking part as an event provider check out the Heritage Festival webpage, or get in touch with us at heritage@ccc.govt.nz. Climate action at centre of Christchurch ConversationsA series of free public events aimed at sparking discussions about how Christchurch can reach its 2030 climate change targets gets under way at Tūranga at the end of this month. The Christchurch Conversations – Towards 2030 events are being organised by Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making and are aimed at helping people understand how their actions can make a difference. Each event will cover a different topic and feature a diverse range of thought-provoking speakers and activities – from local experts providing the latest information, to local businesses and residents sharing their experiences and actions. The first event on Sunday 30 May will focus on how changing the way we move around the city can increase wellbeing, reduce costs and cut emissions. Path to fitness with winter walks in ChristchurchPeople are being encouraged to step up their fitness through a new series of guided walks that gradually move from a wetland wander to a more challenging hill climb. The first walk on Thursday 20 May traverses the Travis Wetland, with the series culminating with a walk to the top of the Port Hills on Thursday 1 July. The other walks include a coastal walk from Spencer Park on 3 June and along the Mount Vernon Track on 17 June. New Titles – Selector Picks at your local libraryCheck out great reads at Christchurch City Libraries in our Selector Picks lists, a variety of the new and interesting titles chosen by our book selectors for the collection. Each month you can browse the latest fiction, biographies, children’s and ‘quirky’ titles, as well themed lists such as Science and Nature, True Crime, Home and Garden, Everyday life and more. You can find this month’s Selector Picks under New Titles on the Library’s homepage. Local artist captures spirit of summerI first came across the opportunity to create this piece from my connections to Council's Graffiti Programme as a volunteer. I received an email from them which stated that they had 5 Chorus boxes available to paint, and they wanted artists to send in their designs. When I started designing the piece, I scrolled through Chorus Facebook pages to see what they liked in a design. From that I presumed that they liked works that were quite bright. I decided that my colour palette was mainly going to consist of a variety of yellows and oranges; Yellow holds much symbolism, it can represent happiness, positivity, clarity, while orange represents joy, creativity, and change. Next I brainstormed my imagery. The imagery I chose was the honey comb, bee, and sunflower; at that point I realised I could immortalise spring and summer even as we approached the cooler months. This piece took about 35 hours to complete over a span of 3 weeks. In the beginning I needed to paint over the box in a base colour of white, so that the original dark green wouldn’t be seen beneath the yellow. Once that dried, I painted yellow over the top with a large flat brush and then penciled in the placement of sunflowers and used hand-made honeycomb stencil to figure out their placement as well. Next, I painted the sunflowers with a thin pointed detailing brush to create the lines in the sunflowers. Following that, I proceeded to then work on the pattern outline with a small flat brush. The honeycomb pattern was by far the most difficult and took the longest because it was so easy to get wrong. Once the pattern was finished and the black spaces in the honeycomb were added to balance out the piece, I penciled in the two bees, painted and added detail, all the while being mindful of their wings, and finally using watered down the white house paint to keep the wings translucent and bring dimension. I was so grateful to all the residents and students in the neighbourhood who loved the piece as I was doing it - their kind words always made my day. However, there was one comment that stood out for me, and that was “this piece is bringing a brightness to the community that wasn’t there before”. The comment completely melted my heart, and I’m so grateful that I could create this piece and invoke that feeling for the Somerfield/Cashmere community. *Isabella Cobb is a volunteer and artist with Council's graffiti removal programme. Grant keeps recyclers in touch with creative ‘junk’Gail Carson literally has a “feel” for creating a valuable resource from discarded ‘junk’. For more than 20 years, Gail has picked over the items on offer at non-profit recycling space Creative Junk to put together tactile books for blind and low-vision children. Creative Junk, which saves a huge range of potentially landfill-bound items for recycling, has recently benefited from a $9750 grant from the Christchurch City Council’s Strengthening Communities Fund. More new wetlands taking shapeNew wetlands are taking shape in the upper catchment of the Ōpāwaho/Heathcote River as work continues on reducing the flood risk in the area. Our contractors are currently working on a 100-hectare facility between Cashmere and Sutherlands Roads and another in Cashmere Valley, close to the Christchurch Adventure Park. These new facilities will help reduce the risk of flooding, as the large ponds capture and store excess stormwater in large rain events. The wetlands will also act as a natural filter for the stormwater before it flows into the Ōpāwaho/Heathcote River, which is home to koura (freshwater cray fish), kākahi (freshwater mussels) and īnanga (whitebait). Contact your Community BoardThe Spreydon-Cashmere Community Board are here to provide support and advice to our community. Contact the Spreydon-Cashmere |