Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka July 2020 Initial Feedback Report · TABLE OF CONTENTS EXEUTIVE SUMMARY ... • Feedback items received via the feedback form during February – April

Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka Initial Feedback Report – July 2020 1

Prepared by Michael Goldsmith and Oliver Walker

July 2020 Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka Initial Feedback Report


TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................... 3

PART A: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 4

PART B: SURVEY RESPONSES ............................................................................................ 9


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Consultation and engagement for Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka aimed to seek input from the

community to inform the development of the Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka plan. This initial

report provides a summary of feedback during February and March 2020 from people who

used the Clutha District Council-supplied feedback form.

Consultation centred around six focus areas, and people were asked to rank the level of

importance (from 1 to 6, with 6 being ‘very important’) of various facilities and approaches

within each area. The average rank for each focus area is shown in the following graph. The

‘Destination management’ area ranked highest at 5.4 out of 6. The highest ranked individual

item was within the ‘Facilities and infrastructure’ area, and related to the importance of water

infrastructure (i.e. water supply, stormwater and sewerage).

Further consultation will take place in August 2020, and all feedback (including suggestions

received during all the consultation events, and submissions from individuals or agencies) will

be included in the final version of this Feedback Report.


PART A: INTRODUCTION Clutha District Council’s goal is to promote living and working in the Clutha District. This is a key

platform in our Long Term Plan that ties closely with two strategies we refer to as the ‘Economic

Development’ and ‘Living and Working in Clutha’ strategies.

The focus of the Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Plan will be to identify what Council can do

to apply the Living and Working Strategy in Lawrence and the wider Tuapeka area. This report presents

an initial summary of feedback received during the first round of consultation in February and March

2020. The consultation program was interrupted due to Covid-19, and a second round of consultation

is to be held in August 2020. The additional feedback will be included in a final version of this Feedback

Report.

All feedback will help identify projects and inform priorities for Council to consider, including in the

2021/31 Long Term Plan and beyond. The actions and projects will also help inform the activities and

decisions of community groups and third-party funders.

Part A of this report outlines the consultation objectives, how the initial consultation was undertaken,

and summarises some of the feedback received to date.

A1 CONSULTATION PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES

Purpose

Consultation and engagement for Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka aimed to seek input from the

community to inform the development of the Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka plan.

Consultation Objectives

The consultation and engagement objectives were to:

▪ Stimulate interest in Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka project.

▪ Encourage feedback on the issues and options outlined.

▪ Develop stronger relationships and partnerships between Council and the Lawrence-

Tuapeka community.

▪ Provide accurate information for decision-makers to assist them in making informed choices

around the resourcing of future Lawrence-Tuapeka-based projects and initiatives.

The Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka consultation document was adopted by Council on 20 February

2020. The Communication and Engagement Plan was prepared in accordance with Council’s

Significance and Engagement Policy.

Role of elected members

The role of the elected members to date has included:

- Providing input and overall leadership for the Our Place project.

- Approving consultation material and consultation/engagement approaches.

- Promoting the Our Place consultation material and assisting with consultation and engagement

activities.

It is noted that elected representatives of the Clutha District Council (CDC), as well as members of the

Lawrence – Tuapeka Community Board (LTCB) have assisted with this project. The local Ward


Councillor and the LTCB have also had the opportunity to provide input on the second round of

consultation.

Once the consultation process has been completed, elected representatives will have the opportunity

to consider all of the stakeholder and community feedback received, to inform the final Our Place

Lawrence-Tuapeka Community Plan.

Project Group

A project group for this project made up of Council staff members undertook the following:

▪ Contributing to and where applicable, prepare underlying information to give foundation to

the Our Place plan.

▪ Reviewing the draft Our Place material and ensure that it is ready for consultation.

▪ Attending meetings and take part in consultation activities as required.

A2 FOCUS POINTS

Six focus points were included in the consultation material. These were topics which were expected

to generate feedback through the public consultation process. A short explanation of each focus point

is provided in Table 1.

Table 1. Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka focus points

Focus Point Explanation – what is this about?

1. Opportunities for development What actions could be taken to make it easier for people to live

and work in the Lawrence – Tuapeka area?

2. Community facilities &

infrastructure

The facilities and infrastructure which underpin the local

community are critical. As a growing community, it is timely to

talk about the level of services which are currently provided,

and any upgrades which may be required.

3. Parks and reserves

What are the most important parks and reserves in the

Lawrence - Tuapeka area, and what activities could be

developed in these public areas?

4. Landscape and environment

How do we ensure that the recreational, cultural, landscape

and ecological values of the Lawrence – Tuapeka area are

maintained for future generations?

5. Destination management

How can we take a proactive approach, in order to attract and

manage visitors to this area, to ensure it is successful as a

destination? This includes district-wide issues such as the

management of freedom camping.

6. Walking and cycling

What opportunities are there to create new, or improve

existing trails and links? What other facilities could be

provided?


A3 THE CONSULTATION PROCESS

Phase One – Stakeholder Consultation & Engagement

A series of discussions with the LTCB and other stakeholders in late 2019 / early 2020 helped to identify

the six focus points listed above. This was used to develop the formal consultation material, as well

as the consultation program.

Phase Two – Public Consultation & Engagement

The initial public consultation phase took place from 13th February to 18 March 2020. A number of

different activities and methods were undertaken, including:

• Consultation material

A consultation document was developed for consultation to help prompt ideas and discussion,

particularly around the main focus points listed in Table 1. This document was delivered as an insert

with the Tuapeka Times on the 20th February 2020, to properties within Lawrence Township and the

Rural Delivery 9593 and 9591 postcodes. Copies of the document were also available as follows:

• Council offices, including the Lawrence Service Centre

• Balclutha Library

• Online via Council’s website

A letter was also sent to all ratepayers who own property in the Lawrence-Tuapeka, advising them of

the project. This was to ensure that people who own property in the Lawrence-Tuapeka (but do not

necessarily live there permanently) were aware of the consultation process, and could provide

feedback as well.

Posters were also produced, and these were mounted on boards as a tool to generate discussion at

a range of consultation events.

• Community-based consultation events

A series of different consultation events were held in Lawrence to gather feedback and suggestions,

as shown in Figure 2. As noted above, several events had to be postponed due to Covid-19.

Figure 1. Discussions with shop owners, Lawrence Main Street, 27 February 2020


Figure 2. Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka - calendar of community-based events

• Feedback form

Included within the consultation document was a feedback form, which included a structured survey

for respondents to indicate the importance (or priority) for the ideas presented, and also provide

comments or suggestions on the topics they believe are important. Both the consultation document

and the feedback form used the same design style as previous ‘Our Place’ consultation material,

including the ‘Let’s Talk’ and ‘Tell us what you think’ catch-phrases. The feedback form was structured

around the six focus points listed in Table 1, but also included space for more general Lawrence-

Tuapeka-related feedback.

• Targeted Youth input

A workshop with students from the Lawrence Area School was originally scheduled for 25 March, and

was rescheduled for 12 August 2020. Outcomes from this workshop will be included in the final

version of this Feedback Report.

A4 CONSULTATION FEEDBACK OVERVIEW

There were three main types of feedback received through the consultation process:

• Feedback items received via the feedback form during February – April 2020 are summarised

in Part B. This includes both the hard copy forms, and an online version of the same material.

During this period there were 39 hard copy forms received, and 4 through the CDC website

(43 in total).

• Feedback items (recorded on ‘Post-it’ notes) received from community-based consultation

events in February and March 2020 (Figure 2). There were approximately 130 points of

contact made with members of the public during these six events, and 239 feedback items

noted. A summary of these items will be included in the final version of this report.


• Four formal submissions have been received to date from individuals and organisations. These

are submissions which are in a different format to the standard feedback form, and highlight

issues which are of particular concern to those people / agencies. These items will also be

included in the final version of this report.

A5 CONCURRENT CONSULTATION

No other formal consultation programs were run concurrently with the initial Our Place Lawrence-

Tuapeka consultation program. However, CDC will develop a Lawrence-Tuapeka Reserve Management

Plan in late 2020, and this has some alignment with the Our Place project, as explained below.

Lawrence-Tuapeka Reserves Management Plan

A statutory consultation process is required for Reserve Management Plans (RMP’s) under the

Reserves Act 1977. Feedback relating to parks and reserves which is received as part of the Our Place

consultation program will be used to inform a draft version of the Lawrence – Tuapeka RMP.


PART B: SURVEY RESPONSES This part summarises feedback received through a structured survey (either hard copy feedback form, or online). Respondents were asked to rank the level of importance (from 1 to 6, with 6 being ‘very important’) of various facilities and approaches, within the six focus areas identified in the community consultation document.

B1 OVERVIEW

Focus areas: Average scores for each of the six focus areas are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Average scores for the six focus areas

Individual items: Figure 4 shows the score for individual items. Note that due to the number of items within the ‘facilities and infrastructure’ and ‘parks and reserves’ focus areas, only the average score for items within these areas are shown - the individual scores within these two areas are described in subsequent sections.

The highest ranked individual item had an average score of 5.6 out of 6 and related to the importance of water infrastructure.1 The 2nd and 3rd highest ranked individual items were approximately 5.5 out of 6 and related to the management of freedom camping and waste management services. The 4th group included several items which had an average score of approximately 5.3 out of 6 - these related to the importance of public toilets, urban and rural roads, promoting Lawrence-Tuapeka as a destination, and extending the Clutha Gold Trail.

1 As noted, this is not shown as a separate item in Figure 4 - only the average score for facilities and infrastructure is shown.


Figure 4. Average scores for individual items in the survey (note that an average score is shown for the ‘Facilities and infrastructure’ and ‘Parks and reserves’ focus areas)

B2 OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT

The average score for items within this focus area was 4.81 out of 6 (4th overall). Reducing existing flood risk in Lawrence was ranked more highly than providing for additional residential development.

Not Important Very Important Average Score

Topic Rank

Overall Survey Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6

How important is it to reduce flood risk in low-lying parts of Lawrence?

1 2 1 5 9 22 5.13 1 8

How important is to better understand flood risk in low-lying parts of Lawrence?

0 3 2 6 10 19 5.00 2 15

How important is it to plan for likely changes in population?

0 1 3 9 16 11 4.83 3 16

How important is it to provide for more residential subdivision?

2 2 5 13 11 8 4.29 4 24

Average score 4.81


Figure 5. Individual scores for items within the ‘Opportunities for development' focus area

B3 COMMUNITY FACILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

The average score for ‘community facilities and infrastructure’ was 4.84 out of 6 (3rd overall). However, there were a range of scores for the various items within this category: from 5.61 for water infrastructure (the highest individual score overall), down to 4.22 for the Beaumont/Waitahuna halls (Figure 6).

Not Important Very Important Average Score

Topic Rank

Overall Survey Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6

Water infrastructure (water supply, stormwater, sewerage)

0 0 0 3 10 28 5.61 1 1

Waste management services 0 0 0 5 11 23 5.46 2 3

Urban and rural roads 0 0 2 3 14 21 5.35 4 5

Lawrence Public Toilets 1 0 0 4 14 22 5.34 3 6

Lawrence Service Centre / Library 0 0 4 10 12 16 5.00 5 12

Playgrounds, sports fields and green spaces

0 0 6 6 10 17 4.97 6 14

Tuapeka Aquatic Centre 3 0 5 8 14 10 4.50 7 20

Simpson Park Hall 2 2 4 10 12 11 4.49 8 21

Beaumont / Waitahuna Halls 3 1 5 16 7 9 4.22 11 27

Beaumont / Waitahuna Pools 3 2 6 12 10 8 4.17 9 29

Community housing 1 2 9 11 10 6 4.15 10 30

Average score: 4.84


Figure 6. Individual scores for items within the 'facilities and infrastructure' focus area

B4 PARKS AND RESERVES

The average score for ‘parks and reserves’ was 4.3 out of 6, the lowest of the six focus areas. This topic had a reasonably tight distribution of scores, from 4.95 for the Whitehaven Street Playground down to 3.97 for the Lawrence Rodeo and Gymkhana Ground. An exception was The Arches reserve, which was the lowest ranked of all items (Figure 7). A number of suggestions were received regarding the Arches reserve, and these will be included in the final version of this report.

Not Important Very Important

1 2 3 4 5 6 Average Topic Rank

Overall Survey

Whitehaven Street Playground 0 0 4 10 10 16 4.95 1 15

Lawrence, Beaumont and Waitahuna cemeteries

0 1 5 13 6 17 4.79 2 17

Simpson Park 0 2 4 8 16 11 4.73 3 18

Peace Garden 1 0 6 10 15 10 4.62 4 19

Western entrance to Lawrence 2 2 3 11 12 10 4.48 5 22

Eastern entrance to Lawrence 1 2 3 14 12 8 4.45 6 23

Steep Street Domain & picnic area 1 1 8 12 11 5 4.21 7 28

Lawrence Golf Course 2 2 8 12 10 7 4.15 8 31

Zigzag track 2 3 9 11 11 5 4.00 9 32

Lawrence Rodeo and Gymkhana Ground

3 3 6 12 10 5 3.97 10 33

The Arches (Old Lawrence Pool) 13 4 7 5 8 3 3.00 11 34

Average Score 4.30

Other items (as suggested)

Gabriel’s Gully 1 1

‘Dog Park’

Plant more fruit trees 1


Figure 7. Individual scores for items within the 'parks and reserves' focus area

B5 LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENT

Both statements within the ‘landscape and environment’ focus area scored reasonably highly, and the average score was 5 out of 6 (2nd overall). Despite its high score, very few suggestions for projects that relate specifically to this focus area were received.



Overall Survey

How important is it to protect the physical environment?

0 1 3 5 16 15 5.03 1st equal 10th

equal

How important is it to protect our scenic landscapes?

1 0 2 8 12 17 5.03 1st equal 10th

equal

B6 DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

Destination management appears to be a key focus area for people within Lawrence-Tuapeka, with an average score of 5.4 out of 6 (1st overall). Managing freedom camping received the 2nd highest individual score, and promotion of the area as a destination also scored highly.

A majority of respondents (62%) were in favour of restricting freedom campers to certain sites, rather than taking a more permissive approach (Figure 8). This suggests that the provision of a designated freedom camping site in or near Lawrence is a project which should be discussed and investigated further.



Overall Survey

How important is it to manage freedom camping?

0 0 1 4 8 26 5.51 1 2

How important is it to promote Lawrence – Tuapeka as a destination?

1 0 1 4 9 24 5.36 2 6


Should freedom campers be restricted to certain sites (e.g. in close proximity to shops & services)?;

OR

Should a more permissive approach be taken, allowing people to camp on a wide range of Council-controlled land?

Figure 8. Preferred approach to the management of freedom camping

B7 WALKING AND CYCLING

The average score for the ‘walking and cycling’ focus area was 4.7 out of 6 (5th overall). Support for extending the Clutha Gold Trail through to Waihola remains high, with a score of 5.26 out of 6.



Overall Survey

How important is it to improve and develop walking and cycling linkages?

1 0 3 7 10 18 5.03 9

How important are the following options?

Extending the Clutha Gold Trail from Lawrence to Waihola

0 0 3 6 8 22 5.26 1 7

Short trails / links in Lawrence, Beaumont and Waitahuna

2 2 5 11 10 9 4.33 2 25

A short (1-day) cycling loop, linking to the Clutha Gold Trail

2 4 4 12 8 10 4.25 3 26

Average score 4.71


Figure 9. Individual scores for items within the 'walking and cycling' focus area

Documents

Our Place Lawrence-Tuapeka July 2020 Initial Feedback Report · TABLE OF CONTENTS EXEUTIVE SUMMARY ... • Feedback items received via the feedback form during February – April