WHITBY

Residents Association

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • News & Views
    • Latest News and Views
    • Our Local Newspaper
    • Village Plan
  • About Us
  • Submissions/Consultations
  • Events
  • Photos
  • Whitby Map
  • Contact Us
  • Community Chat

Brookside Developing, and Navigation Heights Also Under Way

Brookside Developing, and Navigation Heights Also Under Way

Posted on May 22, 2017 by WRA

Classic Builders has established an office in Whitby now as they begin taking expressions of interest from people who are interested in their Brookside housing development on the former lower nine golf course land off James Cook Drive. Their Whitby office, in the village centre office accommodation formerly occupied by The Banks, is staff by […]

Posted in Future Developments | Leave a comment

News Categories

  • Future Developments
  • Maori Names
  • PCC
  • Whitby Lakes
  • Whitby Mall
  • Whitby Rates
  • WRA Update

Useful Contacts

Chairman: Geoff Mowday

Secretary: Saar Cohen-Ronen

To send us a message then please use the form on our Contact Us page.

Become a Member

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Your Message

Please input this code: captcha

Too Soon for New Local Emergency Rescue Base or our Own Medical Centre?

As Whitby develops, there will be a greater need for infrastructure facilities to support the new population and growth. Whitby may have about 12,000 residents currently but how will the community cope if we had 20,000 people? What infrastructure will they need to continue to live in this area, and enjoy our special micro climate and lifestyle?
The Whitby Village Centre Mall will develop at its own pace, given demand and opportunities provided by the mall owners, and other property landlords with suitable premises, or wanting to build new premises. Its natural extension would have been to the north but the sale of land to developers and the building of Whitby Lakes Retirement Village and its chalets and aged facilities has put a stop to that. An obvious extension might be into the car park but how well will that go down given the pressures which the centre is under currently for lack of adequate parking?
It is not unreasonable to speculate that in a decade, or even less, a local general store may be required in Silverwood… and perhaps their own local cafe. A pre-school (or two) may be needed in Silverwood too, and in time education facilities will come under increasing pressure.
Land is owned and zoned by the Ministry of Education at Samwell Drive for a primary school in the eastern end of Whitby - the fourth primary school for our area - but the prospect of a state secondary school is definitely more distant, particularly as Aotea College continues to expand its numbers, although that must end sometime.
What is not so clear is what other facilities may find Whitby as a central and desirable place to develop…
The development of Transmission Gully motorway will give Whitby good links to the main road north and south…. And with traffic volumes on other roads increasing, it is difficult even now for fire engines from Porirua or Plimmerton to make it into Whitby locations inside their self-imposed response time limits for 15-20 minutes from alarm time.
The New Zealand Fire Service has confirmed that a fire station in the Whitby-Waitangirua-TG area will be required in due course. Their sophisticated fire assessment software programmes which take into account the age of the housing, and its quality, assessed by the percentage of houses with fire protection alarms or built of fire resistant materials is all part of the calculation as to when a fire station might be needed. Its location seems sensible and likely at eastern Whitby/Pauatahanui or in that region.
The modern model is for a merged emergency hub - combining perhaps a fire station with ambulance depot and even a police base. That is not such a stupid suggestion given that their communication systems are similar, and it makes sense to develop a single network of communication and a first response vehicle and staff to attend to incidents or accidents or disasters.
Logically, that might attach or be close to our own medical centre, perhaps following the best parts of the Auckland model of being privately owned and operated by the group of doctors, providing clinic coverage from say 8am to 10pm daily. Whitby residents of the future might be happy to pay for such services when they are needed rather than join the queues at Kenepuru hospital or endure the longer journey to Wellington Hospital.
Sophisticated spatial planning is all about providing and locating these type of services in the area where they are most needed, rather than duplicating services in every community, but it seems there is little of that actually being done for our communities at the present time.
Whitby was developed and promoted as a planned community, but much of that planned development was never actually built. A designated industrial zone, with office towers for instance did not find favour with residents nor developers.
But at least there was a plan. The current model of treating each application as a stand alone proposition leads to haphazard development, and that may or may not be a good thing. An overall master plan is what is being developed in Christchurch currently as part of the rebuild of that city, and whilst it can be cumbersome, it does at least provide an outline and delivers some guidelines.
Just what our community and infrastructure might look like in ten or 20 years is a great talking point. Speculate away. It will be very different community from how we structure and operate today… and technology might just prove that Whitby could be the hub!

Menu

  • Home
  • Latest News and Views
  • Our Local Newspaper
  • Village Plan
  • About Us
  • Submissions/Consultations
  • Events
  • Photos
  • Whitby Map
  • Contact Us
  • Community Chat

Categories

  • Future Developments (1)
  • Maori Names (1)
  • PCC (1)
  • Whitby Lakes (1)
  • Whitby Mall (1)
  • Whitby Rates (1)
  • WRA Update (3)

Recent Photos

Copyright © Whitby Residents Association 2014 | Website Designed and Built by SabreWeb

Press f for fullscreen.