Street names close to home

South Wairarapa District Council has sought help from Greytown Community Board with street names in the town.

The naming of two new streets in Greytown is stirring up discussion in the community.

Hillview Properties is developing 25 houses near Humphries St and as a result of a subdivision, two new streets have been created.

The company applied to South Wairarapa District Council to name them Mawson Lane and Worsley Lane, after early famous Antarctic explorers Sir Douglas Mawson and Frank Worsley.

A council officer's report tabled at a meeting yesterday recommended approving the names as they met the guidelines in the council's policy on naming public and private roads.

However, councillors weren't so keen and they voted to ask the Greytown Community Board for help with the names.

Councillor Julie Riddell said Greytown resident Neil Montgomerie had some good suggestions, which he had sent in an email to Greytown ward councillors. He said he was concerned about the proposed names and suggested the names have a more local flavour.

He said they could be named after former Greytown mayors John Garrity, who passed away this year, and Richard Harding, the mayor before Garrity.

Greytown has a tradition of naming streets after mayors and Yule Grove, named after Fred Yule, actually backs onto the new subdivision.

He said they could also be named after Maori families associated with Greytown like Iraia Te Whaiti, or prominent businesses like clothing manufacturer Bouzaid and Ballaben.

South Wairarapa Mayor Adrienne Staples agreed with his view. "My personal feeling is while they [Mawson and Worsley] may have national significance it would be quite nice to have Greytown-focussed names."

Colin Olds agreed and said the naming should go to the community board for input.

Councillor Max Stevens said it would be nice to honour John Garrity.

Councillor David Montgomerie said the names would be more appropriate for somewhere like Lyttelton or Akaroa which have some association with Antarctic exploring. "Really what we've got are names of national significance, one of them being an Australian."

The councillors voted to refer the issue to the Greytown Community Board.