Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association

Murray King is working with the Regional Council to reduce the train squeal on the Johnsonville line. They are trialling reduced train speed after 10pm and want people who live close to the line in Crofton Downs and Ngaio to provide feedback.

During April all trains after 10pm will travel from Crofton Downs to north of Box Hill at 20km/h. Later in the trial they may increase the speed to30 km/h to see if that makes a difference. They chose the night trains because the noise at night is particularly disturbing and because there will be fewer passengers delayed by the change.

Let Murray know what you think the trial has brought about in terms of noise. Let him know where where you live along the Line, as well as your approximate distance from the track and a brief description of the noise. Let him know when you think the train noise is particularly bad and whether slower trains at night are making a difference. Don’t wait until the end of the trial to give feedback as he is happy to receive frequent emails.

E-mail him at murray.king@xtra.co.nz to let him know what you think.

The land at the end of Silverstream Rd, Crofton Downs, is on Wellington City Council’s nominated list of special housing areas around the city. This means that, for the land confirmed as special housing areas, Council speeds up the resource consent process and limits notification to immediate neighbours. Members of the community aren’t notified or consulted before work begins.

Crofton Downs resident, Andrew McLellan is making an oral presentation to a full Council meeting on Wednesday, 8 April 5:30 pm, explaining why he opposes the inclusion of 131 Silverstream Road as a special housing area. Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association supports his views.

Silverstream Rd

131 Silverstream Road is surrounded on 3 sides by the Outer Green Belt and is close to Huntleigh Park. There are issues around the environment, earth stability, recreational access and infrastructure that need to be addressed.

It has a special appendix in Council’s District Plan.

We have cancelled the picnic in Cummings Park today, Sunday, 29 March from 11:00am – 3:00 pm. It’s real shame because we have the Push Play trailer with lots of games for the kids, the scouts were planning to do a sausage sizzle and the guides were planning to sell girl guide biscuits and show people how to decorate them. As well, many of our green restoration groups were going to be there, and we planned to show everyone some of the amazing features of the park, such as the old totara tree.

Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association is organising a Neighbours Day Picnic in Cummings Park on Sunday, 29 March from 11am – 3pm. Bring your own picnic and join in the fun. Water available.

The Guides will help us play Push Play games throughout the day and Ngaio scouts will demonstrate how to put up tents. 

If it’s wet on the day, we’ll put cancellation notices in Cummings Park and on our website. Fingers crossed for fine weather.

Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association had two excellent guest speakers at its AGM on 18 November – Kelvin Hastie and Jane Schaverien.

Kelvin told us all about the Crofton Downs Predator-Free project. They have a $5000 grant from the Enhancing the Halo and are using the money to supply traps to householders in Crofton Downs. They hope to rid the suburb of rats, mice, stoats and possums and by day 40 of the year-long project had a haul of 21 mice and 42 rats.

Jane Schaverien described the Community Fruit Trees project where, thanks to Wellington City Council and local residents, there are now community fruit trees in Abbott Street, Tarikaka Street, Heke Street.

Contact Jane via the community fruit trees blog to find out more.
Email Kelvin at kelvinenhalo@gmail.com to find out how to join the CDPF group.

Feel like a local walk next weekend, but not sure where? The library has free copies of our latest Ngaio and Crofton Downs walking tracks map. This one includes the whole Silversky Track.

You can download or print out an A3 version of the map.

Latest walking tracks map of Ngaio and Crofton Downs

We are holding our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, 18 November 2014 in the Ngaio Union Church, corner of Kenya Street and Ottawa Road. The meeting begins at 7:30 pm.

Guest speakers are Kelvin Hastie of the Crofton Downs Predator-Free project and Jane Schaverien of the Community Fruit Tree project, as well as contributions from other community groups.

AGM 2014

Ngaio Town Hall was packed out for our Meet the Candidates meeting in the Ngaio Town hall on 2 September.  It started out quietly with each candidate outlining policy, but livened up immensely once question time started.

We are holding a Meet the Candidates meeting on Tuesday, 2 September 2014 at 8:00pm in the Ngaio Town Hall. Come early to get a seat. Candidates will speak for 3-5 minutes followed by questions from the floor. Supper afterwards.

Do you want to know more about the changes Greater Wellington Regional Council is proposing to make to bus routes through Ngaio, Khandallah and Broadmeadows? If so, come along to a public meeting on 2 July, Khandallah Town Hall, 7pm, Wednesday 2 July. Khandallah Cornerstone Resource Centre Trust Board and the Council are the organisers.

At the meeting the Trust Board will invite volunteers to take part in a future workshop with the Council and work on detailed options for local bus routes.