Another month closer to the Rugby World Cup and things are moving along…

The RWC is an opportunity for us to locally promote the area and a really good excuse for a party.  We have been busy working with the council to ensure that we make the most of this opportunity.  At this point we have ordered our street decorations which we plan to use along in the town centre and down Manukau Rd.   We will be running a rugby themed shopper promotion in September and October to help bring business to the retailers.

For the community we are planning a family day, including a Rugby Match against the Mayoral 15 – Mayor Brown has been asked to be subbed off after the first 2 minutes though.  This is planned for mid-October in the school holidays, if you are interested in being involved or have any ideas on how we can make it a great day please get in touch with Kendyl.

Our BID constitution has now been adopted, and we will be electing a new Executive Committee in mid June.  This will be made up of 6 representatives of the 1500 business community we represent and one member of our Local Board. 

The Spatial Plan first consultation period ends on 31 May, we will be making a submission and if you have any comments you would like to make please email Kendyl by 28 May.  Our submission will be on the website once it is completed.  Our particular concerns are locating the Food Innovation Centre in Wiri rather than Pukekohe, improved passenger rail services to Pukekohe and identification of Pukekohe as a “satellite town”.  Our concerns regarding the latter is that increasingly Pukekohe residents will live in Pukekohe but commute to the city to work, rather than developing employment opportunities locally.

Welcome to Catwalk and Trail who both opened this month. It is great to see that the shops vacated by business closures have predominantly been leased to new businesses with only one café and two recently closed shops remaining empty.   Sadly commercial/industrial premises are not faring so well, our focus in coming months will turn to bringing new non retail businesses to Pukekohe as this is vital to keep local employment opportunities growing.

I look forward to seeing you at this month’s Business After 5, where we have a speaker from Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.