Notes of the Newtown Residents Association Meeting, Monday 17 April 2023
Rhona Carson (Association President) welcomed everyone and introduced Katie Sharp, Advisor – Community Resilience and Recovery, from Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO).

The first part of the meeting was about planning for future events

• Meet the Candidates Meeting for the General Election. It was agreed to hold a meeting on Monday 25^th September, at the Salvation Army Hall in Newtown.   

• Emergency Response Practice at the Newtown Community Emergency Hub (at Newtown School). Katie Sharp spoke to this. She proposes meeting on a Sunday, she will look at suitable dates and get back to us.

• Proposed Newtown History Walk. The meeting discussed possible approaches to exploring Newtown’s history, including pre-european oral history and sites of significance. A small goup volunteered to form a planning group to take this further.

• Clean up Newtown events. There is potential for organising more of these events but they need someone – or a group – to coordinate them. See the full minutes for further discussion about cleanliness issues in Newtown.

Newtown Community and Cultural Centre progress. Tom Law (Chair of the NCCC Trust) reported that the reopening will be on 15 May.

WCC Annual Plan

Rhona circulated copies of the engagement document – provided by Newtown Library. Also printed copies of the Submission Form – which can also be found online. Noted that apart from Q1 – Do you have any overall feedback about the 2023/24 Annual Plan –  and Q2 about proposed changes to the Rates Rebate, all the other questions are about feedback about a variety of new or increased fees.  See https://www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/annual-plan-2023-24 for more information.

The work to be done this year was already agreed in the last Long Term Plan. The engagement document sumarises the planned activities. There are only a few which directly affect Newtown.

• Wastewater Network Renewals
• Parking management plans
• Former Workingmen’s Bowling Club Newtown. This consultation closes on April 27^th. See https://www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/bowling-club-newtown.
• Rates Rebates. The meeting is in favour of increases to the rebate for low income rate payers.

The Annual Plan consultation closes on April 30^th.

Greater Wellington Regional Council Annual Plan – GWRC Cr Yadana Saw outlined this consultation.

See more at https://haveyoursay.gw.govt.nz/2023-24annualplan. Submissions close on April 26^th.