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Input on gardens plan wanted

Wednesday 10 February 2010, 10:29AM

By Queenstown Lakes District Council

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QUEENSTOWN

People passionate about the Queenstown Gardens are being invited to get involved at the early stages of developing a new reserve management plan, general manager communities Paul Wilson said.

“Before we develop a new reserve management plan for the Queenstown Gardens we want to hear from those with an interest in the gardens,” Mr Wilson said.

The existing plan was prepared by the Department of Conservation in 1987 and did not include all of the Queenstown Gardens land.

“In particular the new plan will need to include the council administered reserve adjacent to the entrance road which is where the ice rink and skatepark are located,” Mr Wilson said.

A walkabout and workshop to capture early feedback would be hosted by the council at the Queenstown Gardens on the Wednesday 17 March, meeting at the Rotunda at 5pm.
“We’ll spend an hour walking around the area and then hold the workshop at the gardens depot from 6pm,” he said.

With early feedback from the community, prior to developing a draft plan, Mr Wilson hoped to capture all issues, concerns and suggestions early.

“Suggestions received will be given full consideration and will help to inform the draft management plan which will then be prepared by the council for wider consultation,” he said.

Early feedback could also be sent in writing to the council and should be received by 31 March, 2010.
“A draft reserve management plan will then be considered by council’s community services committee and released for public submission,” Mr Wilson said.

Effectively the process allowed the community to not only comment on the draft plan but actually participate in its formulation, he said.

“The Queenstown Gardens is iconic and understandably people are very passionate about it. You also have a mix of people using the gardens all with different needs. We hope this process will allow input from everyone,” he said.