One Mahurangi – The business bounce

I think everyone in Warkworth has now seen first-hand the impacts of the new motorway, both good and bad; two sides of the coin.

The good, of course, is that there are not as many vehicles on our roads and locals feel that, to some extent, we have our town back. We are no longer held hostage in our homes over the weekends while traffic backs up. This was evident on the first Friday of the July school holidays, when traffic flowed through the traffic lights with relative ease.

The new motorway has also made the trip south easier, safer and slightly quicker. Another bonus is Hill Street being very quiet and easier to get through. One of the concerns that One Mahurangi has is that with Hill Street having less traffic, will Auckland Transport decide that it doesn’t need to be fixed?

We would prefer that work continues on Hill Street with both design and build because in the near future, when some of the big developments are finished in the area, we will need a Hill Street that works for those increased traffic volumes.

Now the other side of the coin: the hard part of the new motorway opening is the obvious dip in business from less traffic in the area. Being truly off the main highway now, some businesses in the Grange have seen a significant decrease in foot traffic and, consequently, a significant drop in business.

While not unexpected, this reality is still challenging to overcome.

One Mahurangi is committed to looking for solutions and ways to redirect customers back into the area. I have been working for some time on requesting from Waka Kotahi an additional exit sign that identifies Puhoi as the last turnoff to Warkworth south. This would indicate that Warkworth south is easily accessible via the Discovery Coast Highway and invite travellers along the scenic route back to Warkworth through the old southern entrance again. I will keep you posted as to what progress we make in this request to Waka Kotahi.

The decline in both traffic and business will, I believe, level out and will then climb back as development continues to grow. However, the question remains, how do we support local businesses in the meantime? Going forward, we need to market Warkworth as a destination, a place worth visiting and spending time and money in.

We are working on new signage for both ends of town that will tell people Warkworth is a great place to visit with cafes, shops, take-aways, accommodation and we will be working on a plan to get that message out beyond our borders.

One Mahurangi will be doing all that we can, so let’s work together and bring those visitors back to our beautiful town. Meanwhile, let’s all show the Grange and the rest of our local businesses some love and support them, because in that way business will bounce back.