Youth forum to give young people a new voice

Wanganui's young people have a new channel for their voices to be heard.

The Council recently organised a youth forum which brought together 40 representatives from local intermediate and secondary schools. The forum discussed how young people could raise issues with the Council and other agencies, and how those groups could seek feedback from youth.

Community development manager Rosemary Hovey said the representatives generally preferred the group to be split into senior and junior sections. These groups would meet two or three times a year, but may be called together to discuss a specific issue at any time.

"The idea is to get a better understanding of what youth in Wanganui think, what they want and what they wish to see changed," Rosemary said.

"We received good feedback from the first forum on what young people see as 'burning issues' and we are sorting through those to see which ones relate to the Council and which need to be passed on to other agencies. These issues will be on the agendas at the next forums.

"The next forum is planned for March which will give young people the chance to have a say about the Council's priorities and programmes for the 2002/03 year."

Policy planner Helen Duncan will be the key Council contact for young people's issues. Helen can be contacted by emailing helend@wanganui.govt.nz or by phone on 349 0001.

• To enable people to park their vehicles near the main shopping centres.

1. 389 off-street car park spaces in the following locations: Kingsway (51), Firestone (70), Winstones (58) and Opera House (20) in St Hill Street, 2ZW (28) in Guyton Street, Phoenix (18), Drews Avenue (8), Polyclinic (22) in Wicksteed Street, Wharenui (16) and Regent (18) in Ingestre Street, Museum (59) and Footlab (21) in Drews Avenue. Most off-street car parks are sealed, marked, have a minimum of security lighting and are sign posted. Firestone, Winstone and Phoenix parks have 'pay and display' machines installed.
2. There are 490 kerbside metered parking spaces and some 1000 time restricted areas around the Central City area. These are monitored to ensure regular turnover and availability of spaces. Offenders are ticketed, fined and followed up. Suburban shopping centres are serviced on demand.
3. Traffic control and temporary signage for special events such as marches, street parades and market days.
   

Hours

• Wardens police the car parks from 8am to 5pm weekdays and 9.30am to 12.30pm Saturdays.
  

Cost

The parking service is funded from fines, meter and rental revenue.
Typical charges are:
Victoria Avenue 80 cents per hour.
Side streets 40 cents per hour.
Pay and display $2 per day or 30 cents per hour.
Rentals $10 per week.

Further information about parking is available from Walter Middelberg at the Council office, phone 349 0001 or email walterm@wanganui.govt.nz.

The Council's new contractor, Budget Waste, took over the rural rubbish bag collection from Tuesday, November 6.

Collection days remain the same, but bags will be collected fortnightly not weekly. Correctly packaged recyclables will be collected.

The Papaiti bin site has been closed and a bag pick-up point established on Papaiti Road.

Yellow stickers will not be valid in the rural area after November 1. The urban area is not affected by this change.

The Budget Waste system offers the options of pink stickers, or blue or yellow prepaid bags.

Rural residents with excess yellow stickers are welcome to exchange these for pink stickers at the Wanganui District Council office, Treasury Services counter, 101 Guyton Street. This exchange offer is available until the end of November.

Rural residents will receive Budget Waste leaflets about the collection dates. If you have not received a leaflet please contact Budget Waste. The Budget Waste help telephone number is 344 4201.

If you would like more information, please contact Larry Jones at the Council on 349 0001.

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