Submissions on Palmerston North City Council's 10-Year Plan close May 14

Palmerston North's newest subdivision, Tamakuku Terrace in Kelvin Grove. Photo / Judith Lacy

In the second of two articles on the Palmerston North City Council's proposed 10-Year Plan, Judith Lacy looks at goals 3, 4 and 5.

If your diary is starting to look a little lighter during these autumnal days, Palmerston North City Council feels your pain.

In its proposed 10-Year Plan, the council says it wants more events held from April to September and wants to collaborate with event organisers to achieve this. The city has an "extensive and diverse events programme" but many events are centralised over the warmer months.

This plan is part of achieving the council's third goal - a connected and safe community.

It wants council events that are inclusive and reflect the growing diversity of the city, and
information on events that is easy to find through a customer-centric, one-stop portal.

Palmerston North has a higher Māori population than New Zealand as a whole (18.7 per cent and 16.5 per cent respectively in 2018). The 2018 census showed there are 126 languages spoken here.

The council wants to identify and facilitate opportunities for new community events, particularly those that appeal to Māori, people aged 18 to 34 and 55-plus, and people with children at home.

The 10-Year Plan is also proposing to remove overdue library fines for youth and children, which is expected to mean a $368,000 drop in operating revenue.

Housing is a big part of goal three and the council is looking at redeveloping industrial and commercial areas such as Roxburgh Cres and council land such as Huia St Reserve and Albert St Depot for housing.

It has excluded programmes to develop community hubs at Kelvin Grove and Highbury while it carries out a city-wide community facilities stocktake and needs assessment.

The council's fourth goal is an eco city. It has allocated $271,000 to investigate a kerbside food waste collection and processing service.

It is also proposing building a recycling and green waste drop-off facility for Whakarongo/Kelvin Grove in years 4 and 5 of plan at a cost of $2,284,000. This would serve urban growth in that area of the city.

Other eco city proposals are trialling a programme for the recycling of mattresses and establishing a polystyrene recycling programme.

Goal 5 is a driven and enabling council with active citizenship being a priority. The council wants residents to understand what it does and for a range of voices to be heard in decision-making processes.

The council considered allocating $177,000 to develop a civics education pack for schools but for budget reasons has not included it in the proposed 10-Year Plan.

Submissions close at 5pm on May 14 and will be available to view on the council's website from May 21.

The Committee of Council will deliberate on the submissions at its June 9 meeting.