The Ngatea and rural Plains community is all set to celebrate the festive season with its first Christmas Parade since 2019.
The parade is being organised by Ngatea’s newly-formed business association, Connecting the Plains. The committee, which formed earlier this year after previous association Positively Promoting the Hauraki Plains wound down, includes local business owners Yvette Saunders, Shelley and Chris Spilsbury, Ann Clark, Luke Mitchell, Wayne Barker, Malcolm Payton and Letia Boe along with Hauraki District Council Plains Ward councillor Ray Broad.
“The whole community wants a parade,” Chris said.
“So it just needed new organisers and that’s where we are.”
The parade kicks off at 5.45pm on December 12. It will head down Ngatea’s main street before arriving at Hugh Hayward Domain where the association and the Ngatea Lions have organised entertainment, food trucks, spot prizes and more.
Community groups, schools and businesses were encouraged to register a float for the event, which the association hopes will be the “biggest and brightest yet”.
As well as the parade, the association is also looking ahead to next year and what it can do to promote the Plains.
“We’re there for business, we’re there to promote the town and the communities in the ward, but also we’re that channel back through the council,” Chris said.
“We’d encourage people to get in contact with us if they’ve got things they want us to know about. We’re obviously business people ourselves and we’re busy, and our ideas aren’t all the ideas that are out there. So if people have got things that they want to see happening, we want to be approachable in that way as well.”
In fact, the association has already put some community ideas into action.
“One project that has happened under Connecting the Plains so far is the tidying up of the town of graffiti. We had a local group of guys that formed together to say that they’d give up their time if we provided all the materials and everything, and they painted all the graffiti, talked to the businesses and got agreements and painted the brick wall down by the Lotto shop, painted behind the chemist – they literally just watch out for graffiti and then approach the businesses and paint on over it,” Shelley Spilsbury said.
“They’re just self-motivated to improving the community. The less graffiti that’s out there, obviously the less encouragement for other graffiti artists.”
Ray Broad said the council was pleased to have an enthusiastic group helming the new association.
“It’s well-supported from the ward councillors here because they cover not just Ngatea but the whole Hauraki Plains,” he said.
The traffic management and road closure fees for the parade will be funded by the council.
DETAILS: Ngatea Christmas Parade, December 12 at 5.45pm on Orchard West Rd followed by entertainment at Hugh Hayward Domain.
