Park St
STEVE RENDLE
[email protected]
The latest iteration of designs for Masterton’s town centre revamp have been made public, but no matter what the designs of walkways and pedestrian spaces, carparks remain a issue for many business stakeholders.
The latest designs are the final versions in the “developed designs” stage, where key elements are in place.
Masterton District Council will make a decision on them on June 26, before moving to a “detailed design” stage, where materials and the likes of tree types are finalised. But car parks are unlikely to change significantly in that stage.
Bruce St is one of the key elements in the designs, and New World supermarket owner Clive Webber is blunt in his assessment of the plans that would see 20 fewer car parks on the street.
“It is a bullet to the head for New World, for Entice [cafe], and for Aratoi [museum and gallery],” he said.
He says changes to the New World carpark layout would lead to the loss of a further four or five car parks from an original total of about 100.
“If you take away 25 per cent of my car parks you take away 25 per cent of my business.”
Webber said while upgrading the footpath to create a walkway on Bruce St between Queen Elizabeth Park and Queen St might be attractive – and perhaps even be good for New World if it didn’t mean losing car parks – people didn’t naturally move from enjoying the park to wanting to be in a retail environment.
“Personally, I don’t see the linkage,” he said.
Parts of the designs have already been tweaked after consultation, and work by the Town Centre Reference Group, which consists of community representatives, council staff and elected members.
Chairman, councillor Jonathan Hooker, said a lot of work had been done over the last six months with car parks a common focus.
“Parking has been a concern among stakeholders and, because of this, we’ve delved deeper into Masterton’s parking capacity and demand.
“That exercise has shown us there is demand for some additional parking around lower Queen Street on the busiest days, but other areas including Bruce and Park Street are fairly well serviced with numerous carparks within walking distance.”
That includes suggesting supermarket shoppers park in Farriers – an idea that Webber is sceptical about.
“People don’t want to push trolleys – unless they’re stealing them.”
Hooker said the council was investigating areas around the town centre where parking could be increased, such as along Park Avenue, or how existing carparks may be optimised.
“We’ve worked hard to balance concerns around the changes with trying to achieve the objectives for each of the three priority projects,” Hooker said.
“That includes bringing more greenery into town, encouraging east-west foot traffic and providing spaces for people to enjoy our town centre.”
What’s changed in the latest designs
Bruce St: Parking added on south side, removal of container outside ConArt, reconfiguration of ramp and seating area on the corner of Bruce and Dixon Streets, addition of canop
y outside i-Site.
Park St: Reconfiguration of Park Street/Dixon Street corner to assist with petrol tanker access into Parkview, lowering and removal of planted areas to improve sight lines into businesses.
Queen St: Addition of parks by changing some parking back to angled parking, loading zone added near corner of Bannister and Queen, addition of non-defined parking on eastern side of Queen.
Put a walking strip from Strada right down to flight centre/Hannah’s. This shopping space is popular enough to warrant it, and people will park further north promoting business at this end of town 🙂
Where do council get their ideas from?
Expecting New World shoppers to park in the Farriers car park and push a trolley from the supermarket across a busy road back to their car is a ludicrous idea ! You should be supporting local business not discouraging people away from the supermarket. I always find Bruce St parks fully used when I am at that end of town so why reduce the number of car parks ? It is time for some sensible thinking about who to vote for at election time.
How dumb in using the Farriers for parking. If they watch the shoppers, they should realize that they do not walk any distance for access to the bruises. And those that do take the trolleys to the parking area will not return the trolleys to the shop.
I think that the people doing the planning need to get some training an what is proper considering the age of the customers.
Seems like council has got to much money to waste. Why would you create a side street walk way which serves no real purpose and destroy 25% of a big local owned business like New World who employs all local people. If they loose 25% of their business they might affectivly have 25% staff losses and other service reductions to local service providers. Its simple maths and I think council is digging a grave for the local community of Masterton with this one. I would like to see these council members walk lets say 300m to Farriers carpark in the rain with a trolley after shopping, Hmm not going to happen. The same goes for other small busnisses affected by this clearly flawed plan. Lower the number of parkings for retail shops you lower the feet through the door and its that simple. I think council should rather add to the number of exsisting parkings as parking around that New World area can be a problem at he best of times. Ps. I love living in Masterton and strongly supports localy owned bussines as they are the backbone of our community.
Reducing the number of car parks in Bruce Street is not a good idea as many elderly people shop at New World and will not be interested in parking at Farriers car park – means crossing a busy road and elderly people cannot move as quickly as required to dodge traffic while they are carrying shopping. There are not enough car parks currently for this supermarket!
The location of the bike stands raises question marks – too prominent right in front of Arts Centre – people could trip over them. Perhaps they could be located by the Information Centre round the corner and out of site or at Farriers car park.
Obviously still suffering from too much “Beer and Skittles” for common sense to apply.
I am 77 years of age and shop at New world if the mentally challenged (who expect to get re-elected this year) expect me to push a shopping trolley to the Farriers car park, I respectfully suggest they start looking in the situations vacant column of the local paper from now on.
Perhaps the Town Centre Reference Group should park at Farriers, do a shop at New World, and pushing their trolleys go back to the Farrier’s car park to unload, and then push the empty trolleys back. And carry out this test before making silly suggestions to counter concerns by New World, and other ratepayers. Please someone in control listen to concerns.