A focus on local parks - Councillor update June 2025

If there’s a local park you like to use with your family, to play sports, or walk the dog, Waikato District Council wants your thoughts about how it’s managed.

The Council is updating its reserve management plans for Neighbourhood Parks and Sports Parks across the district. Some of you sent in your ideas to the Council when it started this process in August last year. Please check out the updated draft plans and let Council know if they need any final changes.

In Tamahere-Woodlands Ward the Neighbourhood Parks covered by these plans are: Good Street Reserve and Jack Foster Reserve in Matangi, Hukanui Park in Gordonton, and Te Awa Reserve in Tamahere. The Sports Parks in the Ward are: Gordonton Reserve on College Dr, Matangi Recreation Reserve at the Sports Club on Tauwhare Rd, and Tamahere Park which runs between Devine Rd and Wiremu Tamihana Dr. Any other open spaces not covered by these two plans are categorised differently and managed under different plans, such as the Natural Reserves or the General Policies reserve management plans.

Consultation is open until Monday 14 July. For more information, please go to www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/say-it.

Tamahere Reserve – quick update

Tamahere Reserve (Crawford’s Quarry) is not included in the current review of reserve management plans because it is still classified as a quarry. But now that a large swathe of the pine trees are felled and cleared from beside Tauwhare Rd, the next step is to create a concept plan for the reserve, with input from Tamahere Community Committee and the Tamahere-Mangaone Restoration Trust, and to incorporate the reclassification and renaming of the reserve in this process.

Long Term Plan (LTP) and a joint Waters CCO with Hamilton City

Thanks to all 555 people who made submissions on the Council’s Long Term Plan 2025-2034 including a proposal to establish a Waters CCO with Hamilton City that attracted 143 submissions alone.  The Council set aside two days to hear from those who asked to address the Council directly.

As a result of deliberations, Waikato District has agreed to form a jointly-owned Council-controlled organisation with Hamilton City to manage the drinking water and waste water infrastructure that serves the city and district. The new waters company will be incorporated by July this year, with full operational responsibilities starting from July 2026. Over the next 12 months both councils will transition their waters assets and services, and around 270 staff, to the new entity. The new CCO will not take ownership of the two Councils’ stormwater assets, but will be contracted to undertake stormwater services for both Councils. See the Waikato Times here.

Deliberations on  the final shape of the LTP overall concluded at the end of May, and the Council is expected to adopt the LTP on 30 June. 

The plan is based on a general rate increase of 4.25% for 2025/26 falling to an increase of 3.05% in 2026/27 and then mostly smaller rises of between 1.5% - 4.5% in subsequent years. Your proposed overall rates may be higher depending on the range of services you get that attract targeted rates (such as reticulated water and rubbish/recycling). You can check the effect of the proposal on your own property by going to our rating information database on www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/rid.

Driving around the Ward

• Airport Rd traffic management during Fieldays 11-14 June

  The morning one-way system installed last year on SH21 Airport Rd will be used by Fieldays again this year to support free flow of west-bound traffic from the Tamahere interchange to Mystery Creek. This means that the Expressway underpass at Tamahere will be closed to east-bound traffic each morning (6am-11am). Only local businesses and residents with recognised passes (available from Fieldays) will be able to travel east on Airport Rd from Raynes Rd, and there will be no right turn from Pencarrow Rd onto Airport Rd during the morning peak traffic. Fieldays will also introduce traffic restrictions between Hamilton Airport and Tamahere each afternoon from 4-6pm.

  This information has been provided by Fieldays. For more information on Fieldays traffic management please go to www.mysterycreek.co.nz/traffic-updates or email the Fieldays team on marketing@nznfs.co.nz or their traffic management consultant Joseph Rosendaal on joseph@riss.co.nz.

• Birchwood Lane, Tamahere Community feedback following a public meeting on the temporary chicanes installed to slow traffic on Birchwood Lane will help the Council to decide whether and how to continue with the traffic calming trial.  The trial was installed following evidence and complaints of continual speeding on the lane since the Alfred Main connection to the Waikato Expressway opened in June 2022.  With community opinion divided and two of the four chicanes removed, the Council is reviewing the way forward.

• SH1B Telephone Rd rail crossing – delay to re-opening

  Work by NZTA to upgrade the SH1B Telephone Rd crossing and adjacent Holland Rd intersection has now allowed Holland Rd to re-open. However, the SH1B rail crossing itself is not expected to reopen until after railway signals are in place – work that KiwiRail has scheduled for the second half of July. Until then, the SH1B detour around Holland Rd, Waverley Rd and Seddon Rd will remain in place. Watch NZTA’s website for updates: www.nzta.govt.nz/projects.

• Nearby works on Seddon and Eureka Rds A section of Seddon Rd just east of Shewan Rd, Puketaha, is being urgently repaired under stop/go traffic management (from Tues 3 June) after serious cracking was found. The Holland Rd end of Eureka Rd will be closed for about three weeks from Monday 9 June to rebuild a section with slumping damage. Detours will be in place with access for local residents only.

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Use Antenno to keep in touch with Council

The Council has received more than 700 requests for action (eg. dumped rubbish to remove, or pot holes to fill) through the mobile app, Antenno, since it was introduced it for use by residents and ratepayers in October last year.

The Council has now activated Antenno’s outgoing messages function to send timely notifications directly to residents about local issues like a road closure, rubbish collection changes, local events, and emergency alerts that are specifically targeted for your registered location(s). Download the app from the App Store or Google Play and try it out.

Contact your Tamahere-Woodlands Councillors:

Crystal Beavis, mob 0275 957 927, email 

Mike Keir, mob 027 449 3012, email