Town Centre Beautification Projects

For the Marlborough District Council to work alongside business associations and volunteer groups to beautify Marlborough's town centres using a "get the job done" approach via the utilisation of voluteers and local trades people. Year after year, rate payers complain about the condition of their town centres and the deterioration of services, chattels and infrastructure within them and year after year, next to nothing gets done, because budgets don't cover contractor cost levels to do the job. 

Community beautification projects not only improve the appearance and usability of town centres, they also provide key opportunities for local boards and business to connect with local people and have a strong impact within the local community, instilling and fostering local pride. 

Pre busy season town centre makeover days, could see locals coming together with the MDC to re-paint, clean and fix our town centres and come up with creative ways to reduce the visual impact of empty shops and unused land / areas. 

In my opinion this would be a great initiative to breathe life into our town centres until the MDC create and implement Town Centre Strategic and Spatial plans.

Picton and Havelock 100% need beautification, new chattels and infrastructure upgrades. In both towns, landlords also need to get onto fixing up their properties and the council need to invest. Blenheim town centre will soon be in real need of support too, once businesses start to move out to Westwood.

Let's stop being reactional MDC and let's start looking forward to make sure parts of our region don't fall too far into decline. It's always better business to be nimble and proactive and to use forward planning than to react once its too late.

Our town centres are dirty, under maintained, under resourced and in need of investment. This is not good business for Marlborough and it shows in the stats. Marlborough's economic growth is failing, our businesses are struggling and tourism is in decline. This region needs strategic planning for towns and soon!