Tau hou te iwi ataahua,
Happy New Year to you all and I hope that you managed to have some time off with family, friends and loved ones over the holiday period. Mac and I spent a week away with his family who live in Gisborne and a couple of nights in Napier to catch up with friends. It was a lovely time to just catch our breath before looking ahead to 2021.
And it’s nearly the middle of February already!
Last year was strange to say the least, and I was very pleased that many in Upper Hutt got through it relatively unscathed. However, I know it wasn’t pleasant for many and the holiday period hard for some. If you know of anyone in the community who is still struggling and who the Council or I could support in some way, please let me know and I will see what I can do.
Council is full steam ahead on the Long-Term Plan with regular workshops and public consultation due to start in March. There are some fairly substantial projects that will offer better community facilities and jobs as well as support for sustainability projects. It will be interesting to hear your views once the consultation document is public.
We are in the middle of the first cycle of meetings for the year – with City Development Committee last week, Risk & Assurance and Finance & Performance this week, and Policy next week. Agendas are available here. If you have thoughts on any items on the agenda that you would like to share before any of the meetings, please get in touch, or come along and share them in the public forum.
I have given some thought about how I will increase my engagement with the community and if you have any ideas or feedback to add to these, please let me know. I will re-start the Commute with Angela soon, probably keep it to Wednesday as before, and do it once a month for a while. I know that my idea was shared with a general election candidate, which he thought was good and started doing himself. It didn’t win him his seat back; however, I’m not going to let that deter me J
The Zoom café that I started in lockdown as a place for people to connect, as they would in the likes of a café, went well and I will re-start that soon too. We had many conversations on different topics that was mixed with humour and I hope that all of those who joined in felt supported. It was a rough time and anything that allowed some sort of connection was, I felt, welcome. If you have any ideas for titles, times and days, or format, please do suggest them.
Along the line of the Zoom café, I am thinking to offer a time to meet me at different venues across Upper Hutt and advertising it on social media. For example, I might advertise that I will be at the Fig Tree from 10-11am on Saturday and would be happy to listen to anyone in the community. Do you think that will work?
Something else that I would like to offer is a focus group-type gathering in neighbourhoods where someone invites me to meet with them and some neighbours, family and/or friends. The purpose is for them all to meet me, learn about me in person and discuss anything that they would like to share. I could also use these to test ideas, policies and projects. What are your thoughts on this idea, and would you be able to support with organising one or two throughout the year?
Music is something that seems to resonate with a lot of people, so I am going to start a My Music Memory Monday series. I will have a story for each clip and it seems to me, from a call to APRA, that sharing a YouTube clip and building a public Spotify list is perfectly okay – no copyright issues. It will be a bit random, eclectic and a different way for the online community to get to know me.
These are just a few ways I plan to engage, and I am always open to your feedback with ideas as well as information on community events that I should support and opportunities for speaking engagements.
Take care, look out for each other and stay safe.
It’s time for a change in Upper Hutt and we can do this together.
Ngā mihi nui
Angela