Happy New Year.

The first Keep Newtown Clean for the new year is on Saturday 11 Jan at 9am to 12.30pm.

Newtown is looking good and its staying clean and tidy ….we just need to maintain the standard now.  We have noticed that the tagging is not returning like it used to and that if it does return its removed responsively.  Feedback from Residents and Businesses are positive with a positive feeling about the difference it is making for our community.

You are invited to join our first clean up for 2014  Please invite your family, friends and neighbours.  We will have the BBQ there supplying free food.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

A good turnout tonight to hear Generation Zero on transport options, and get a preview of the restoration of Laura Rosier’s History of Newtown.

We now have set up a separate page on the site to help promote events happening around Newtown.  We are happy to list performance, cultural community events and fundraisers – whatever is coming up.  If you are involved in something you think we should know about, just drop us a line.  Current listinsg as at 31 October

The monthly Keep Newtown Clean working parties have so far been a huge success.  Not only are we gradually getting rid of the ugly random tagging from the suburb but the working parties are starting to take on a life of their own as a chance to meet other people from the suburb and discuss other ideas for improving our part of the city.
Just turn up outside Newtown New World from about 9:00am in your painting gears.  You will then be given photos of your targets along with the right paint and equipment for the job and off you go.  There is free food and drinks for the workers afterwards.
This particular event this Saturday is a special one. The television media will be attending as well as our Mayor Celia Wade Brown, Councillor Paul Eagle and new Councillor David Lee.  Taje the chance to meet the Mayor and councillors and talk to them about your ideas and concerns.  The latest news is that our event model has been so successful that other communities are wanting to adopt it.   Haylee from the western suburbs and Zandra from Eastern Suburbs will be attending to gain support for their own events to keep their communities clean.
In addition this week WEMO – Wellington Emergency Management will be attending with information to assist with support and information to make Newtown a resilient community to disasters. Look out for Jason Paul for information.  This is the first part of the follow through from the community meeting about Earthquake preparedness that was held at the end of September.
Feedback about Keep Newtown Clean from Businesses and Public has been fantastic.  Some recent comments have been:

• “Newtown looks so different”
• “I really like the improvement”
• “I love living in Newtown”
• “Newtown has such a positive community buzz”
• “Peoples attitudes have changed, people are proud of the improvements, people are more positive”
• “Its great to be able to do something that makes a difference”

At this stage Council support has been promised two more events – that is this Saturday, and one on Saturday 7 December.  We want to ensure Keep Newtown Clean is sustainable and want to have continued support and resources from Council to do this.  Please show your support by turning up and doing your bit on saturday. Ensure we Keep Newtown Clean.
Thanks to our sponsors and supporters – Amadeus Hair, Newtown New World, Placemakers,
SB Maintenance

You can check out the new video on you tube

Would you like to pick an apple fresh from a tree on the way home from work? Would you like to get your fingers dirty with other gardening enthusiasts in a social and fun environment and meet more of your neighbours? Woul you like to learn more about growing your own food, right here in the city? These are some of the visions behind a proposal currently being considered by the council. And the first place in mind is a sunny little section of Carrara Park!

How has this come about? You may have already read about the establishment of the Newtown Gardeners Group. Others have got together and started gardening the temporarily vacant site at 70 Daniell St. Community gardens have been popping up all over town. It seems growing your own veg is in vogue, and it is about time Newtown joined the party. So a small group of people got together to put in an application to the council for a more permanent garden in Carrara Park. The various sections of council have considered the proposal, and have given their support. The final stage is for you, the community, to voice your support (or concerns. If you would like to do so, you can contact Sarah Adams at Wellington City Council, or you can contact the organisers.

We would also love your input and feedback, and when the time comes, we hope you will join us when we turn the first sod. The first stage is design. We will be careful to make sure we retain the functions of the existing park, and keep the open space for games or picnics. If you would like to be a part of this, then get in touch and we can let you know when we meet and what we are planning. For

The Wellington Police together with the Wellington City Council are currently running an operation focused on burglaries, thefts from cars and the unlawful taking of motor vehicles in Newtown and Mt Cook.  Statistics have shown this time of year spikes have occurred in these offences and this operation is a proactive move to prevent these offences occurring.  A large number of these offences are occurring as a result of people not securing their property and allowing offenders an easy target.
A multitude of strategies are underway involving school activities, a crime prevention video on WCC website, a media strategy, crime prevention advice personally and via pamphlets to targeted areas, together with a large police presence patrolling areas identified through our intelligence analysis. We are strongly encouraging the public to be super vigilant in regards to security of their home and vehicles, ensure they lock their doors, alarm their houses, leave nothing valuable on display in their vehicles, report suspicious activity, if they see something which doesn’t look right, report it.
There has already been one successful ‘catch’ this month by Wellington South Community Constable Sam McKenzie.  Sam analysed of number of burglaries to local businesses in Newtown and Kilbirnie and developed a plan, whihc resulted in his catching an offender red handed.  This person was linked to 12 burglaries to business premises in Newtown/Kilbirnie.  The offender is currently in Rimutaka Prison.

If a large earthquake strikes Wellington there is a possibility that your home’s water supply may be cut off for weeks, maybe even months.
The Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO), along with councils across the region, has organised the sale of an affordable 200 litre water tank that can attach to your house and collect rain water. It’s also a great back-up supply for the garden in summer.
So far around 1300 tanks have been sold and demand is high.
WREMO worked with a local supplier to make the tanks available for $105, and they can be purchased from the Council service centre on Wakefield Street, as well as other councils across the region. Comparable tanks of this size can retail for $250.   More information

A new edition of “Plant Me Instead” for the Wellington region is out now.

Many of the weedy species invading and damaging our natural areas are ornamental plants that have jumped the fence from gardens and gone wild. It costs councils, government departments and private landowners millions of dollars, and volunteers and community groups thousands of unpaid hours, to control these weeds each year.
One of a regional series published by Weedbusters, this Plant Me Instead book has been funded by local councils and the Department of Conservation.  It lists the weeds of greatest concern to those who work and volunteer in local parks and reserves, national parks, bush remnants, wetlands and coastal areas. Suggestions are given for locally sold non-weedy species – both native and non-native – that can be used to replace these weeds in your garden.
Please contact illona.keenan@wcc.govt.nz if you would like a free copy, or you can download it.

From time to time shops in the mainstreet become vacant and sometimes stay that way for sometime waiting for someone to come along and take a punt on locating their business there.   But how do people know who what sorts of business might be in demand and be likely to succeed here?   Maybe the answer is to ask the locals.  The latest initiative from the Newtown Business Group is taking precisely that approach.

One shop front that has remained vacant for while is the former travel agent opposite “The Wedge” in Riddiford St.  Now you have a chance to let people know what sort of business you would like to see open there.    The Business Group has placed post-it stickies on the front window of the shop.   Each says “I would love to be a”  with space for you to write what you would like to see happen on that site, and add it to the collection.   Go to it!