Te Puke Centre's Post Office dream becomes reality

The Te Puke Centre Charitable Trust chairwoman Karen Summerhays.

Next Monday will be a red letter day in the history of postal services in Te Puke.

The Te Puke Centre Charitable Trust will open the Te Puke PostCentrePlus as the first part of its social enterprise.

The operation will be run by their subsidiary company, Te Puke Centre Ltd.

The centre will open with full postal and bill pay services including the Post Boxes and will retain the KiwiBank ATM.

It will be business as usual, with the only changes people will see being a different layout to allow the information and visitor centre and co-working spaces to be developed as funding is secured over the next year.

"The trust had prioritised the postal deal to ensure a largely uninterrupted postal service to the public,'' says trustee Monique Lints. ''There is still a way to go to achieve the trust's full vision to create a vibrant community asset. We will take it step by step making sure we have community and funders' support as we go."

''There has been a huge voluntary effort by all the trustees to get this across the line,'' says trust chairwoman Karen Summerhays. ''We are continuing to receive fantastic support through this establishment phase. We are particularly grateful for the start-up funding we received from the Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Te Puke Community Board."

In late 2018 the Te Puke community responded to a crowd funding campaign that has enabled the acquisition of the postal services and advancing the establishment of the centre.

'We are proud of our innovative approach to the provision of a much-needed community asset in Te Puke. I believe we are creating a model for other communities to embrace to provide for themselves their own social infrastructure needs," says Karen.

The official opening of the Te Puke Centre will be at 6am next Monday with a blessing and the gifting of a name and whakatauki by local iwi.