The Council is committed to regenerating Whanganui's town centre.
In April 2017 the Council adopted the Making Whanganui Visible Regeneration Strategy(PDF, 30MB).
The Strategy sets out a vision for the town centre and identifies actions and initiatives to deliver this vision, set out in the strategy as an implementation plan (see Section 15).
A Town Centre Steering Committee comprising local Councillors, community members, Mainstreet Whanganui, Whanganui & Partners, local iwi and Council officers is overseeing and delivering the implementation plan.
Recent projects
Whanganui Walls
Whanganui Walls was Whanganui's inaugural street art festival. The event was held in March 2019 and welcomed 8 international and NZ based professional street artists to Whanganui to inject their creativity into the centre of town. The event created an incredible amount of activity and vibrancy and has made walking through our lower blocks a magical experience. The event also saw local budding artists have the opportunity to be mentored by the experts and they even got to paint a piece of their own.
The Conversation Station
The Conversation Station is a quirky little idea that further activates the Little Park in a really meaningful way. One of the strengths of the Whanganui community is its connectedness and diversity and the Conversation station celebrates this.
The concept began with a fun little prank which prompted our community to take part in meaningful face to face conversations. This was filmed and edited into the below video. Check it out!
After the success of the video we now have a permanent installation of the Conversation Station on Victoria Avenue, go for a stroll down the street and see if you can find it, you never know who you might meet and what you might learn.
Ridgway Pop Up
Over the summer a really vibrant community space was set up on an otherwise vacant piece of land in the heart of our old town precinct. The space housed the Common Ground coffee container, a non-profit business that trained young people into the workforce and donated profits to local youth organisations. Gourmet burger trailer "Slims" provided delicious food and the space was filled with bean bags and oversized games. A small stage and shade sail provided a space to sit in the cool and a platform for the odd musician to perform a lunchtime show.
The Ridgway Pop is having a bit of a break but will soon have a new business on it and be a vibrant community space again.
Alleyways
There are so many magical secret spots in our town centre ready to be discovered and these spaces are slowly being transformed by our local creative community. If you go for a walk next to the movie Embassy 3 movie theatre you might stumble across one such spot.
So what's next?
Other projects in the works are a toilet in the fourth block of Victoria Avenue, lighting of trees along the Avenue, an upgrade of the bus stop on Taupo Quay and Tramshed area, Whanganui Walls 2020 and an arts and heritage walkway.
Building Owners Meeting - 27 May 2019
An information evening for building owners about seismic strengthening in Whanganui. Held on Monday, 27 May 2019 at the Whanganui War Memorial Centre.