Our Place Balclutha Community Plan
We've set a direction to promote living and working in the Clutha District. But, what does that actually mean for Balclutha?
The Our Place Balclutha final community plan summarises the projects and the aims of the community, and is a useful reference for people wanting to know more.
Two of the major Balclutha projects that are being led by the community are the Balclutha War Memorial Hall/Clutha Community Hub project and the Naish Park/Centennial Park project.
Clutha Community Hub
During the consultation process for the Our Place Balclutha Community Plan, turning the Balclutha War Memorial Hall into a rejuvenated community hub ranked the second-highest priority for the community. (The first priority was improving the entrances to the Balclutha bridge.)
A steering committee was formed by the Council from members of the local community after a request for expressions of interest. The steering committee subsequently formed a Charitable Trust to progress the project, including the creation of the business case and to represent the community as a legal entity.
The new facility will be owned, governed and managed by the Clutha Community Hub Charitable Trust on behalf of the community. It is vitally important that the facility is financially sustainable long term, to not only keep it affordable for the local community, but to allow it to evolve as the needs of the community do.
Further details of this project can be found:
- on this website under Community Projects
- on the Clutha Community Hub website
Naish Park/Centennial Park
A team of community volunteers and Balclutha ward councillors have been busy investigating what the community would like to see at Centennial Park. Strong suggestions coming through include a dog park, fitness equipment, linkages to the Balclutha Pool and more. Year 13 students from South Otago High School have been engaged to research concepts for a playground and bike park. Investigations into how to improve Naish Park are also underway and Council has engaged an arborist to provide a report on the current state of the park. Members of the Naish family are providing the history of some of the trees there
The "Our Place Balclutha" community plan determines the projects and priorities for the community, as well as help put Council's Living and Working and Economic Development Strategies into action. The ideas centre on what Council can do with our key facilities and how we can work with the community to make things happen.
Council has made it very clear that projects can generally proceed where financially the project is rates neutral, but where a project would be seeking additional Council funding, it would go through a due process for consultation. Council has also built into each project, a requirement to consider "easy wins" as a priority.
