New furniture spruces up Bank St promenade

Happy to see new amenities on Bank St are Revitalisation Group members Elaine Mackintosk, left, Tracey Willms-Deane and Esme Connell. Photo/John Stone

The seating has landed - and Bank St business owners and shoppers are delighted at the change new street furniture has already made.

Last week, Whangarei District Council workers installed planter boxes, seats and bicycle racks along the character-filled road that local businesses thought previously lacked its share of civic love.

Bank St Revitalisation Group member Tracey Willms-Deane, from Tuatara, said that as soon as the seats were installed, passersby starting using them. It is expected the flower boxes will be planted soon.

The functional rather than funky fittings in Bank St were included in last year's Annual Plan, and cost $30,000.

No senior council staff members were available to comment on why the metal seats and planter boxes cost that amount.

Ms Willms-Deane said that although the facilities were not as eye-catching or artistic as a bigger budget would have allowed, they were a valuable addition to Bank St.

"There is still so much to do. We are keen to celebrate these beginning steps that are hopefully the start of a beautiful thing.

"The next step with these planter box ends and some of the seats is a call to artists to create panels that can be displayed in these places on a rotating basis.

"People are getting engaged. The nice thing about the new street furniture is that it shows someone cares.

"I'd like to complement the council for the changes they have made to their consultation and implementation strategies and how much more efficient and easy to work with the last two years have been, compared to the first two years I was working on this Bank St Revitalisation project," Ms Willms-Deane said.

"I would encourage everyone who has been disheartened in the past by 'dealing with the council' to have another look with new eyes. We are evolving."

The group hoped more spending on the culturally and historically important Bank St would now be included in the council's Long Term Plan.

Denby ward councillor Tricia Cutforth had also championed the need to spend time and money on Whangarei's biggest block of heritage buildings.

Ms Cutforth said she expected people would question how much "bang for buck" was had from $30,000, but city beautification was not cheap.

"I can understand people's disappointment, but this is a start. We just have to see it as a small brush stroke toward the bigger picture," she said.

"The main thing is that the precinct is now being acknowledged."

Some Bank St buildings were historically as well as culturally important, such as the Northland Heritage NZ-listed old butter factory owned by Peter Williams, Ms Cutforth said.

The council was currently repairing and painting the former municipal building, and Ms Cutforth said some help was available to other owners wanting to paint their heritage buildings.