Innovative ideas suggested at lively hub workshop

September 20th, 2012

The showcasing of local art and regional flora, a sense of the town's history, and family-friendly buildings and spaces figured strongly among the ideas put forward at a workshop last night about the proposed Motueka Community Hub.

Twenty people took part in the workshop, held at the Top 10 Holiday Park conference room. Although this was a smaller number than initially hoped, it did enable every person to take part in and contribute to the free flow of ideas, some hilariously outrageous but mostly practical, innovative and thought provoking.

The meeting was facilitated by Chris Salt, chairman of Tasman Bays Promotion Association, who had prepared a list of 16 questions designed to lead participants into considering a range of options and possibilities around what a great hub would include and what it's purposes would be.

David Armstrong, co-ordinator of Vision Motueka which is promoting the hub concept, and community board member Mark Chapman began the workshop with an introduction of the concept, why they thought a hub was needed and what its benefits could be.

The three groups then worked through the workshop questions. The range of ideas was huge, but a number of key themes emerged. These included:

Spaces and facilities both indoor and outdoor for entire families to enjoy in a relaxed and safe way.
A space for arts and other local exhibitions.
Flora around the whole hub area including native plants and trees reflecting local agriculture.
Themes including our key activities such as the sea and fishing industry, our environment, water, horticulture, recreation, iwi and various aspects of our history.
A significant area used to showcase and explain our history, culture, landscape and environment, much like a DOC information centre and museum in one.
Interactive displays and facilities.
Green pathways linking the hub building(s) with the surrounding parts of the town and the shopping areas.
A library.
A cafe and other facilities to encourage tourists to spend time here, including in particular facilities for cyclists traveling the Great Taste Tasman cycle trail.
A multi-purpose outdoor performance area.

David was a little disappointed by the lack of representation by some key sectors of the community such as youth and local iwi, but their interests were raised by others at times.

The notes taken by the working groups are being collated by Chris and Liz Salt into a document reflecting the consensus of ideas, and these will be made public soon. Anyone reading this may wish to add further comment by downloading and filling in this list of questions and emailing the result to or handing in their answers and ideas to the i-SITE counter for Lois Walker.

David said that after the results are collated, the next step will be to form an entity such as a trust with a steering group to plan the information-gathering, feasibility study and concept design stages of the project.

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