Now the Innovating Streets trial is over, Whakatāne District Council is planning to remove the features that didn’t work and make the ones that did work permanent.

This includes axing most of the widely criticised planter boxes. These have found homes at the local Playcentre, Kohanga Reo, community gardens and along the wharf.

Of Council’s three projects, which included safety improvements in the Wairaka neighbourhood and street activations in the CBD and Kopeopeo, the Wairaka neighbourhood speed reduction project was the most successful in meeting its goals.

Since the temporary safety improvements, which included speed bumps, curtesy crossings, chicanes and the build-out on the Comm Corner, were installed, speeds have significantly reduced in the area.

“We have been pleased to hear residents have felt safer to let their children play near the street and that curtesy crossings in the area have made it safer to cross the road,” said Council Manager Transportation Martin Taylor.

“Overall, the trial here met its goal of reducing speeds and making the neighbourhood safer for whānau.”

Some of these safety instalments will now be reworked and made permanent.

The Kakahoroa Drive and The Strand project saw some amazing events run to support the Innovating Streets concept and to boost the community following the original COVID-19 lockdown and the Whakaari tragedy. There was also another street event held in the Kopeopeo community.

Highlights included the Sunshine Street Fiesta and several winter Night Markets.

“All these events were well attended, and it was great to see families out enjoying things like the ice-skating rink, the food stalls, and the live music. The CBD was thriving,” said Mr Taylor.

“However, there are some kinks to be worked out particularly in The Strand area as some of the road closures impacted negatively on businesses.

“As with anything you try for the first time, there are going to be things that you do well and things that you can do better, that’s all lessons learnt for next time.

“Innovating Streets allowed us to play with new temporary ideas with limited cost to ratepayers, we really enjoyed and value that opportunity and we’re now using some of the techniques developed across the district to improve road safety, without the planter boxes.

“We’re pleased to now be able to permanently implement some of the aspects from those projects that worked really well and were supported by the community through our next Long-Term Plan.”

Innovating Streets was a Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency project which funded councils to make temporary changes to streets to encourage more liveable spaces.

In total, $473,211 was spent on these projects with Waka Kotahi funding 90 percent of this.