Discussion of new bus services and meeting new faces at the Dunedin City Council were part of the Waikouaiti Coast Community Board’s meeting last week.
There were no presentations in the public forum of meeting, and after formalities were over the meeting began with Otago Regional Council transport manager Doug Rodgers and senior communications adviser Charlotte Flaherty joining the online Zoom meeting.
Mr Rodgers said adding weekend services to Palmerston and other towns north of Dunedin as well as subsidised half-price bus fares due to start tomorrow amounted to a big win for the coast.
Mrs Flaherty said she could see the community was very motivated and active when it came to public transport in the area.
Dunedin City Council housing action plan adviser Gill Brown then spoke to the board to discuss a city-wide housing action plan for Dunedin.
She has been seconded from Kainga Ora to the council to help review the housing strategy.
She said her role was to look at the "whole continuum of housing" to find out what the issues were and how the council could help ensure people were able to get into homes, and complete a housing plan.
She had met a range of people and interest groups and would be giving a presentation to the culture and community committee before outlining themes back for feedback.
In his chairman’s report Alasdair Morrison said it had been confirmed there would be a weekend bus service.
Broadly, it would be what the board had asked for, which was four runs on a Saturday and two runs on a Sunday, he said.
"A Friday evening one is still a possibility but it has not been costed yet."
The bus service would start in April depending on driver availability, Mr Morrison said.
