Franktonites, Monday’s your chance for a suburb-wide brainstorm

After laying dormant for a few years, the Frankton Community Association is back with fresh energy and ready to host an annual general meeting.

Committee member Amanda Lightfoot says right now you only need to look north, to the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, to see the importance of getting involved in your local community.

With mass destruction and displacement across many North Island settlements, Ms Robinson says the concept of “resilient communities” has become more topical and important for the FCA to recognise in its ongoing discussions.

Amanda Robinson is hearing lots of conversations about resilient communities, and it's crucial for Frankton to consider

“It’s about thinking as a community how we can be more resilient considering we’re sitting at the heart of a growing populace.”

The area’s changing, Ms Robinson says, and it’s longer a place to “just pass through”, with development down Hawthorne Drive, plus the airport, hospital, and high school in the area.

“It's really important to all of us who have been here for a while to think about how we can get that real sense of community established."

The meeting will be held at Te Atamira this Monday, February 27 at 7pm, with nibbles and drinks provided, and  while nominations for new committee members are welcome, the group's equally happy for Franktonites to just come along for a chat.

Ms Robinson explains how residents associations like the Frankton one can work to improve a community, citing how FCA lead a large upgrade project for Frankton Beach, which involved native plantings and a new barbeque area.

“A lot of the time with community associations, people get involved because they have an area of interest or a topic that's really important to them."

Meanwhile, plenty of Frankton-based families have raised the issue of having more playground spaces in the area, which Ms Robinson says they're keen to hear community ideas on.

There’s also the “Itty Bitty Shitty Committee”, working to increase bins around the area, and decrease the dog poo left behind.

The group’s had limited activity over the past few years as a result of Covid-19, which disrupted the usual, face-to-face meetings of the association, but they’re reinstating themselves now.

“Things did slow down over Covid, just because it was so hard to schedule meetings not knowing what was happening with the lockdowns.

“The whole face-to-face thing's so important with community-based organisations, and so, it does make it really quite hard. The core committee was still catching up, but we just didn't really have much opportunity to engage more widely with the community.”

In the past year, the association has twice hosted public meetings - one mid-year and another right before Christmas, where Waka Kotahi's plans for roading changes happening in Frankton.

As for the plan for Monday's AGM, well that's where all ideas can get laid out on the table.