Thanks for sharing your feedback with us!
From 13 February to 27 March 2023, we sought feedback from our communities about what they wanted the future of their towns, villages and our district to look like. We received around:
1800 comments and surveys both online and at the 15 events we held across the district
200 pieces of feedback via our social media channels
23 responses from community groups and organisations across Waipā
feedback through the many conversations we had with mana whenua representatives.
In total, this was just over 2000 pieces of feedback which we will now use to further develop and refine our draft community spatial plan.
You can take a look at what people told us here.
We came to you!
We visited 11 towns and villages across the district and held 15 events where we spoke with hundreds of residents about our future.
The places we visited included: Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Pirongia, Ōhaupō, Rukuhia, Karāpiro, Te Pahū, Pukeatua, Te Miro, Cambridge, Ngāhinapōuri.
We were blown away by the number of people who came to speak with us and had their say on this plan (around 30+ per event in our smaller villages and 100+ per event in our larger towns).
We also asked residents to tell us what they thought online via our social pinpoint page, or by filling in a hardcopy survey available from our council offices and libraries in Cambridge and Te Awamutu.
What were we told?
Some of what we heard includes:
support for improvements to walking and cycling connectivity, increased protection around the peat lakes and improvements to bus services
support for the planting of more native vegetation across the district and in general for the environmental outcomes proposed in the interim draft plan
a mix of support for and concern about the development of more housing choices (duplexes, townhouses and apartments) in our main towns
concern about whether there are enough schools in Waipā to cater for our growing population
many of our smaller communities told us they did not want to lose the small village feel of their homes.
You can take a look at our social pinpoint page to see more of what residents told us about their towns, villages and our district.
What has happened so far?
To get to this point in the project, we’ve:
reviewed all strategies currently in place such as the Cambridge Town Concept Plan Refresh and the Long Term Plan 2021-2031
considered other strategies that are not owned by Council but will affect our district such as the Future Proof Strategy (a sub-regional strategy to manage growth)
established what our non-negotiables are. These are the things we will have to address and provide for in the plan e.g. climate change
reviewed all the feedback we have received from our communities during previous consultations including the Long Term Plan 2021-2031
developed five possible future scenarios to explore what the future could possibly look like
sought early feedback from Mana Whenua partners and organisations across the district
used this feedback along with what we already know is important to our community to create the draft spatial plan
sought your feedback on the draft spatial plan earlier this year
Now, we are looking to work alongside our communities once more as we embark on the next stage of the decision-making process.
