Bring a little magic to our streets!
We'd love to hear your feedback on the concept design to make Drews Avenue more vibrant and people-friendly.
Have your say
After working with key stakeholders, we’re consulting with the wider Whanganui community on the concept design for Drews Avenue.
We’d like to hear what you think!
To make a submission, either answer our four questions on the online survey below or post hard copy comments into the ‘feedback letterbox’ situated on Drews Avenue, outside Article café.
Submissions on the Drews Avenue concept design close on Friday, 9 April 2021.
Take the survey here
Project background
In June 2020 the council secured central government funding to install a transformative streetscape in Drews Avenue.
Funding comes from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Innovating Streets initiative, which supports councils to experiment with making streets more vibrant, people-friendly and responsive to climate change.
We’ve worked hand-in-hand with Drews Avenue residents and business owners, as well as community groups, iwi representatives and local designer Ben Mitchell-Anyon, to develop an exciting concept design for the street.
We'll be asking for feedback on an ongoing basis as the project develops from concept to reality!
The vision
The vision is to create a pedestrian-friendly area in Drews Avenue with outdoor seating, greenery and games, where locals can mingle and visitors can experience Whanganui’s creativity and hospitality.
Drews Avenue has a unique, quirky identity and we’d like to make this visible in the street. During our consultations key stakeholders put forward some clever and creative ideas, such as:
- UCOL student artwork projected onto buildings
- painted strips on the road guiding people through the area
- a large, outdoor community table
- retro telephone handsets outside Article café playing music samples from bands which once performed onsite
- an apparatus – similar to a microfiche reader – for viewing historic newspaper articles.
Concept drawings are featured in the Photo Gallery at the end of this page.
What happens next?
Once we’ve reviewed community feedback, the detailed design will be finalised.
By the end of June the changes will be installed in Drews Avenue and a street opening celebration event will tie in with this year’s Lights on Bikes celebration.
We’ll then continue to collect community feedback on the changes until May 2022. This will be used to inform decisions about whether the changes are removed, modified or made permanent.
Whanganui Innovating Streets video
We have Innovating Streets funding for a second project, in lower Victoria Avenue. The current consultation is for Drews Avenue only – we’ll be asking for your feedback on lower Victoria Avenue in early April.
Watch the video to find out more about both projects!