Residents asked to join workshops helping decide $1.26m co-design streetscape improvements

Guyton Street is likely to include a range of streetscape improvements to the road and pathways. Photo / Bevan Conley

Residents are being asked to register interest in a project to co-design improvements for two central city streets in a bid to make them more people-friendly.

The Whanganui District Council’s town centre regeneration team secured $1.26 million from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency back in September to work with the community to co-design and trial a range of streetscape improvements.

The first workshops for the project - named ‘Streets for People’, and to be carried out on lower St Hill Street and Guyton Street - will take place in February next year.

The council said the goal was to improve public transport connections, enhance safety and convenience for pedestrians and cyclists – and make both streets more inviting, people-friendly spaces to visit, not just travel through.

The council’s general manager for community, property and places, Sarah O’Hagan, said this external funding will be split across two projects.

Guyton Street is likely to include a range of streetscape improvements to the road and pathways, while work at lower St Hill Street will focus more specifically on supporting public transport, including the new 2023 high-frequency bus route.

“The first community co-design workshop will be for the lower St Hill Street project and will be held in the first week of February 2023,” she said.

“The goal will be to create a visually-attractive, people-friendly space where bus users can relax and take shelter while waiting for their connecting bus.”

The initial workshops will be a chance to communicate the scope of the projects to our community partners and for us to hear how our town would like to see the spaces developed, O’Hagan said.

“We want to make sure what’s provided on lower St Hill Street suits the community.”

The high-frequency bus route begins in late February, and construction of the lower St Hill Street transport hub is expected to begin after June, 2023.

The gap between the two meant the council would be able to see how the new high-frequency bus route worked and then develop a design to best support it.

Later in February, the council will also hold the first co-design workshops for the Guyton Street streetscape project.

The central business district section of Guyton Street (between St Hill and Wicksteed streets) is an area that the council has received a lot of community feedback on over recent years – most notably from the Guyton Group Trust, which has advocated for works to beautify it and improve safety.

Leslie Stead, who heads the trust, said they’re looking forward to working with the council and community partners to come up with a plan to breathe new life into the street.

Both the St Hill Street and Guyton Street workshops will feature two session time slots (in the daytime and evening) to help ensure as many people as possible can fit a workshop into their schedule, the council said.

Following these initial workshops, the council will present a summary of the feedback they gather back to the wider community, before holding the second round of workshops to finalise detailed designs.

The council said it was directly inviting stakeholders on Guyton and St Hill streets to take part in the workshops, with members of the wider community also very welcome to attend.

People can register interest by emailing: streetsforpeople@whanganui.co.nz.