Paihia's Village Green gets makeover

A band of guerilla town renovators have struck again in the Bay of Islands, this time transforming a once shabby corner of Paihia's Village Green.

From 8am on Saturday 40 volunteers calling themselves the Paihia Phantom Placemakers built four large planters, installed two new picnic tables, widened a park bench, scrubbed graffiti off signs, and even repainted a transformer box in the town.

They also demolished an unsightly fence, replacing it with boulders to let pedestrians in but keep cars out, and pulled up a row of overgrown plants along the back of the Williams Rd shops. The plants had become a repository for rubbish and a hiding place for people up to no good at night.

The project was driven by Katja Caulton and fellow Paihia residents Henk Kuiper and Miriam Hooft. Along with a raft of other town improvement projects it was inspired by an "Art of Placemaking" seminar last year by David Engwicht, an international expert on helping citizens reclaim pride and ownership of their towns.

Mrs Caulton said the community trust Focus Paihia had grand plans for the town, but they would take a long time and a lot of money to realise. In the meantime, residents were getting on with the job of making Paihia beautiful.

Paihia man Bruce Gordon brought his digger to take care of the heavy work, as well as donating the topsoil, bark and picnic tables. Other materials were paid for using proceeds from Focus Paihia's Selwyn Rd op shop.

Mrs Caulton said many changed their Saturday plans to lend a hand.

"It's great to see everybody helping. That's the best a town could wish for. We're all passionate about Paihia and want to see it change in a positive way".

The next step in the Village Green project will be a mural on the back of the Williams Rd shops by mural artist Dennis Lattimer.

Also on Saturday, an earlier Paihia Phantom Placemakers project - a spruce-up of the waterfront with new seating and a pavement mosaic - received finishing touches including a pair of leaping dolphins carved from totara by Kaikohe artist Mano Kingi. It was blessed by the retired bishop of Tai Tokerau, Ben Te Haara.

Other projects being lined up include a clean-up of Maiki Hill, a revamp of the top end of Williams Rd, a footpath flag trail, a mosaic seat and a town mascot.