Raglan retailers told Tuesday’s meeting (28.10.10) held to discuss road closures, that their businesses were operating on a knife edge. The meeting was organised by the Raglan Chamber of Commerce to hear the pros and cons of road closures and to come up with some ideas to minimise the ‘cons’. Alan Vink facilitated the meeting. The meeting quickly turned into a meeting to discuss the impact of the street markets held by the Raglan Community House.
Chrissy Hodkinson from the Raglan Community House explained how the market had been running for many years, originally in the large forecourt of the Community House. When the Waikato District Council took the land for car parking a deal was agreed to that the Community House would be allowed to have street markets in Bow Street.
Retailers said that their business suffered when the top end of Bow Street was closed for the Community House street market. A number of ideas were suggested including moving the market to a different location and dispering the market. Chrissy explained that the Community House saw the market as way of promoting their services and it needed to be near the Community House. Probably the suggestion that made the most sense was to close the downhill lane outside the Community House and to divert cars coming into Raglan onto the normal uphill lane. Traffic would leave the CBD area via Wainui Road and Bankart Street.
The Chamber of Commerce will compile the discussions from the meeting and work with the groups to come up with a way forward.
Retailers on a knife edge at the loaded meeting , what about the customers and the residents of Raglan, did they have a say and the straw poles at the meeting disused the crevances of one affected retailer when proposals were sort. It was a one sided event, without substance.
Retailers on knife edge , New Zealand coming out of the greatest recession since the Great Depression, Forty concerned citizens trying to resolve an issue that is seriously impacting their lively hood and Mr Macleod says that this is with out substance ?
Perhaps Mr Macleod should remember that all retailers are in fact rate payers . And its is rate payers that will fund the community board he is seeking to become a member of .
The meeting was attended by a large percentage of this towns retailers who as general rule reside in this town. This was not the view of one affected retailer.
It was the view of a majority of retailers, that clearly announced the that closing of the main street has major impact on their business.
I personally don’t see the need for the front door of our town to closed seven days a year .
I recommend that the market be kept to the confines of the pavement .
As per the suggestion that the majority of people agreed with at the meeting .
The meeting fairly heard the concerns of the many retailers present and came up with a couple of alternatives for the Community House Market. I understand that the Community House committee is prepared to give these alternatives a trial in the future.
The meeting had a very limited focus. To me the broader aim that needs to be considered is to get more people visiting, shopping and staying in Raglan. I believe that the Community House street market is one way of achieving this by making the town more vibrant. To do this the Community Market needs to trial the agreed alternatives and the market needs to be promoted outside Raglan so that it attracts more people to the town.
The meeting also heard that more parking is needed in town, especially on market and event days. As I am now on the Community Board, I will be pushing for this to be developed by WDC and explore other options.
Any alternative that will allow access to be kept open & still meet the needs of the community house to gain adequate revenue from Market days, should be trialed. Parking could be helped & become a part of the Raglan experience by using some form of Thomas the Tank engine mock train similar to the parking transporter at Waikato Home Show with most visitors parking at the Rugby sports ground Iit would cause more spending with folks spending more time in the village, not just stopping for minutes then driving off. If the Te Kopua bridge is wide enough parking could also be over that side of the estuary with the same transporter serving that area .