Busy year ahead for community boards | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Community Boards in north-west Christchurch have some ambitious projects to keep them busy in the New Year.

The Riccarton/Wigram, Fendalton/Waimairi and Shirley/Papanui community boards hope to tackle some large issues this year as well as ensuring the smaller projects are completed.

Riccarton/Wigram community board chairman Peter Laloli said the year went far too fast for him.

"There's been some exciting progress that we've had and some success," he said.

He said the highlight for 2004 was securing sponsorship for the restoration of the Riccarton Racecourse Tea House as the issue had been on the board's agenda all year.

"That was a bit of a coup really. It's going to be a beautiful building when it's done," he said.

He said the board had spent a lot of 2004 running community projects and lobbying residents to identify problems.

The major project for the board in 2005 was to continue monitoring urban development with a particular concern for Halswell and issues with flooding.

He would also like to see some further development of traffic management and getting major hazards fixed.

"I would like to have a nice safe community and I want people to feel safe," Laloli said.

Fendalton/Waimari community board chairman Mike Wall said the community board was successful in listening more to the needs of the community than their own agendas.

Their main aim for 2005 was to ensure the new YMCA building at Bishopdale was built on time and that operations were able to transfered to the new facility smoothly, Wall said.

He would also like to further the possibility of developing Memorial Ave into four lanes and to shift the war memorials to a better position on the corner of Clyde Rd and Memorial Ave.

He said one of the highlights from 2004 was getting the reconstruction of Hamilton Ave brought forward.

"I've also enjoyed seeing the completion of the park in Rugby St in Merivale and the tennis court and seeing the community using it," he said.

Shirley/Papanui community board chairwoman Yvonne Palmer said it had been a mixture of a year for the board.

She said a new leisure centre in the north-west would take top priority in 2005.

She would also like to see further plans and developments made on the Northern Roading Options and the youth centre at St Pauls Church completed and open by the end of the year.

"I think a highlight is that the new board is really keen to get on and get into the issues and contribute and they're really, really hard workers so that really was a positive for the New Year," Palmer said.

"For me it's that the board is the first port of call for the community to come to with an issue so that we can support them," she said.

She said it was good to see the four-lane project for the Styx Bridge back on track and extension work completed on Northlands Mall.

On a smaller scale, the board continued to develop of partnerships with local schools, the Papanui Returned Services Association and community trusts.