A community initiative is gathering steam, with the second meeting of ‘Greenprint for Whakatāne’ taking place this Thursday (19 April) at the Council Chambers, from 7-9 pm.
Greenprint for Whakatāne launched in February with the purpose of making Whakatāne a more sustainable, resilient and regenerative place to live. The first meeting was very well-attended, with 65 people coming along to share thoughts and ideas.
Greenprint enthusiast, Whakatāne District Councillor Nándor Tánczos, says lots of great ideas were put forward as the group mapped out the key issues facing our District.
“The first objective was to just bring people together. There are loads of really inspiring people in the District doing great stuff, but people are often working in isolation, or disconnected from each other,” he says. “This was about, first off, inspiring and exciting each other and getting a bit more cohesion.
“The second objective was to start getting a collective sense of what the challenges are and what we can do about them.”
Councillor Tánczos says the upcoming meeting will start exploring how we can better connect together. “People talk about ‘emergence’ being when the sum becomes greater than the parts, and I think we have an opportunity to see that happen in Whakatāne. It’s about recognising who is around and getting a bit more synergy.
“The timing is perfect too, with the Whakatāne District Council Long Term Plan up for consultation,” he says. “We’re not about waiting for Council to solve our problems, but we do recognise that at times, Council has a place in supporting what we want to do.
“One of the key messages that came through the community engagement project, Whakatāne Ki Mua, was that our people really value the quality of life here, especially in relation to the natural environment, and Greenprint for Whakatāne is a logical next step to advance that. It’s about protecting and restoring our natural ecology, as well as doing our bit to address the big environmental problems of our time, such as climate change, water degradation and loss of species diversity.”