Minutes for 25 March 2025

Minutes meeting 25 March ’25 held at Avebury House

Present

Murray James (chair), Liesbeth van Bruchem, Ewout van Bruchem, Rachel Crawford, Ross Skinner, Craig Given, Kate Palmer, Nick Hughes.

Present for the Tiny House Village presentation: Georgie Archibald (presenter), Jotham Barmentloo, Dough Churton, Alban Beaumont.

Apologies

Hayley Guglietta, David Duffy, Cheryl Doig, Chris Carter, Andrew Button, Pauline Cotter, Ali Greening.

The first hour or so was used for a presentation by Georgie regarding the proposed Tiny House Village in the area between Swanns Road and Glade Ave.

It was well received by all.

Ross from Sunrise Rotary indicated they are planning a presentation by David Little regarding the redzone on the 7^th of May, 6pm at the Richmond Club. This would be a good opportunity for the Riverlution Tiny House Village to present then as well.

We started our committee meeting at 8.05pm.

The minutes from the previous meeting (25 February ‘25) were moved as true and correct by Murray seconded by Craig and accepted by all.

Just one tiny correction: Jake McLellan had emailed an apology for the February meeting, but I hadn’t seen the email on time to mention it at the meeting.

Correspondence

Also for last months’ meeting we received an email from the Richmond Community Garden regarding sponsorship from the Bin Inn for the preserves competition. I went out to approach Bin Inn, received a $20 voucher and also purchased a $20 voucher, which Hayley has already re-imbursed me for. We all agreed this was accepted.

The email we received on the 4^th of March was to thank Murray and Craig for attending the Residents’ forum. The next forum is on the 3^rd of July.

Intern email on the 6^th of March, asking for support for the precious plastic project. Rachel to follow up.

On the 9^th of March someone wrote to ask if her dog could be included on the mural at Petrie Park. Hayley, did you reply?

On the 12^th of March there was an email from Billy Osteen who asked if I could be the connector between the students and other folks who have lived in Richmond a long time.

Here’s a snippet from the email:

Thanks for your interest in participating in the Richmond Stories project that is an assignment for my class at the University of Canterbury. We are modelling this after East Austin Stories (https://www.youtube.com/user/EastAustinStoriesOrg) and actually have the lecturer who did that with us for the semester.

The intention is for a pair of students to interact with you during the month of May in order to produce a short (~5 minutes) documentary about We Are Richmond. You and the students can decide upon the format of a podcast, film, or still photo montage.

Richmond Gala

We talked about the Gala. It’s going to be a great day out. We would love to have at least 2 people at the stall at all times.

Murray to bring: gazebo, tables (x3), Richmond vote signs.

Craig to bring: Richmond vote sign(s).

Liesbeth to bring: tablecloths, membership forms, pens, lanyards, WAR flag.

Ross to bring: cancer society sunscreen spikes.

Hayley to organise: history panels, whiteboard + pens + dots, corkboard + pins, civil defence flyers.

Rachel to organise: posters with upcoming events, map of where stalls go.

We will put 6 or 7 topics on the engagement board and talk to people about it. They can put a dot next to the one they would like us to work on.

Ideas for topics: Roading, Parks, Public spaces, Events, Village Pool, 10 Shirley Road, Safety/crime, Ongoing support for activation in the River corridor.

At 9.30am, the chain needs to be re-attached, so no one can drive in anymore. One of us needs to do this.

Around noon, there will be a sack race for the kids. We need to round up kids for this.

Update from the Chair

The Shirley pool project is going well. There’s another working bee on the 5^th of April.

The Warden Street entrance is being used by a lot of kids.

Sunrise Rotary will sponsor the paint, mulch and bollards to spruce up the entrance. Hayley to go ahead and purchase/order and send receipts to Ross.

Nick is still in talks with the Ministry regarding the maintenance of the swail.

10 Shirley Road Community Centre

Murray has been invited to attend a working party for 10 Shirley Road on the 31^st of March.

There’s 7 or 8 million set aside to build a new community centre, but Murray is going to suggest relocating the old Carter Family House (not Heritage listed anymore), currently on the corner of Gloucester and Montreal Street.

And repurpose that. With the money left over, lots of good things can happen in Richmond and Shirley.

We unanimously agreed this is a brilliant idea!

Treasurer’s report

We went over the treasurer’s report and it was moved by Murray, seconded by Craig and accepted by all.

Working groups

Roading

Slater street project is due to start in September.

Nicholls Street has had cycle pictures painted on it. According to Nick it’s bubbling up already.

Richmond Clean Ups

The Medway parklet needs to be weeded before the stones can be spread.

Murray, Craig, Ewout, Liesbeth to pick a date to do it together.

Murray indicated the area on North Avon Road needs some work done too. Maybe spray the twitch?

Arts & Parks

Murray spent 4 days in Petrie Park, sourcing dirt, covering up the area that’s contaminated, and digging up the rounds so they can be planted.

According to Hayley (via messenger) it’s at a standstill now till we get community board approval.

Liesbeth is still doing a regular weed-a-thon for the Swanns Road parklet.

Every Friday between 9 and 10am. Please come along.

Warden Street

Hayley informed us by messenger that she and the kids have started working on the entrance. Hayley has cardboard and mulch and will repurpose the plants that Fulton Hogan is uplifting where Ferndale is going.

Constitution

Liesbeth has done some work on the constitution. Murray and Liesbeth will discuss and get back to the committee at a later date.

General business

Claire from Bin Inn has indicated to Liesbeth that she wants the planterboxes removed, since no one is looking after them and they only find rubbish in them. To be discussed at next meeting.

Tanya has asked for contribution to the RCN, which will go to print after the Gala. Murray to write something about local elections and how important it is to vote.

Murray also asked everyone to think about a ‘meet the candidates’ event before the October elections.

We would like to wholeheartedly thank Jake McLellan for making it possible to get permission for us to put the history panels up on the corner of Swanns Road and Stanmore Road. Ka Pai!

Meeting closed at 9.18pm

Next meeting: 22 April ’25 at Avebury House, 7pm.