More green, more birds, more trees – June Crew

The first thing that comes to June Crew’s mind is trees.

She would like more green around, because she would like more birds.

She lives in Huntington – a newer area, she concedes – but there are currently just three or so trees in her cul de sac.

She has lived there for about three years, and she misses hearing birdsong.

“I do notice it when I go to other areas, the birdlife. And it’s not as prolific out where I am.”

Between comments about what she would like to see from the next council, Crew is taking gold coins and calling out orders.

Four with the works.

One, no onion.

It’s a fundraiser sausage sizzle for the North Hamilton Community Patrol, and as chairperson she is in the thick of it.

She doesn’t let being in her seventies slow her down – she had  lugged a big bag of onions over to the stall earlier.

One thing which does stop her in her tracks, though, is the number of people hanging around on Hamilton streets and asking for money.

She thinks it’s a bad image for the city, and the council should move them on.

She sees people begging in Garden Place, by the Riff Raff statue, in doorways, and sometimes they call out to her.

“Hey, lady. Got any money?”

One man asked her for money upstairs at the Lido Theatre, saying someone had stolen his.

“I don’t usually feel bothered like that, but when this man approached me upstairs and it was isolated, I felt a little intimidated.  I went straight down to the security.”

It isn’t all bad in Hamilton, though, and she is happy with many council services.

“The city gardens, they’re beautiful.  And the bus service, I love the bus service. And they do have things like the parades they have for the rugby players, and they have the Christmas parade.”

Plus, she is grateful for the council’s support of the Community Patrol  – it receives a grant of about $1000 a year from a Community Wellbeing and Sustainability Fund.

But then Wybe de Jong calls out from across the barbecue that he’s concerned about a development going ahead at the intersection of Thomas and Hukanui roads.

A McDonald’s restaurant, Palmers garden store, apartments, and more are to be added.

Crew agrees, saying the nearby roundabout is already a problem, and there will be “quite a confusion” once everything is finished.

It’s insult to injury when it comes to her wish for more greenery, too.

“There was beautiful [redwood] trees on that corner section and they just cleared the lot.”

The area is already busy, with a petrol station, supermarkets, a nearby school, buses passing, and a lot of elderly people living nearby.

Plus the roundabout brings traffic in off the ringroad via Wairere Drive.

She says crossing from Thomas St to Hukanui will be even more difficult than it is now, when traffic is “bumper to bumper” at peak times: starting around 7am and 3pm.

De Jong also expects major traffic congestion, but he says the noise from refrigerated and rubbish trucks is the real problem.

“In our street, all the families have moved out… and I’ll be quite honest, we’ll probably think about moving in the next 12 months if the noise and that gets worse.”

He’s also worried about logistics, and says much of it is a matter of consideration.

“The community’s not against the development, but it’s just about the planning of it.”

He just can’t see how to fit enough carparks for the development in the available space, nor where all the rubbish will go.

The entranceway to the new development was planned to be almost directly opposite the drive to Rototuna, until Progressive Enterprises and the community fought to get it moved down the road to ease traffic pressure.

But talking to council about these things is a struggle.

“Unless you have got the time and you’re not working full time, they don’t make it easy,” he says.

“It saps your resources.”