Residents plan to grill CYF over youth prison

Don Hammond says there is "real anger" over the youth facility. Picture / Alan Gibson

Emotions continue to run high at Kaharoa, near Rotorua, about a proposal to build a youth justice facility in the community.

Residents say they plan to ask hard questions at a public meeting tomorrow with officials from Child, Youth and Family, which bought a 19ha property in Kaharoa after identifying it as a suitable site for housing up to 32 young criminals.

The meeting, at the Kaharoa Community Hall at 7pm, has been called by the Kaharoa Prison Action Group.

It was formed after CYF revealed in November it had bought the land on Te Waerenga Rd for just over $1 million.

Locals said the proposed facility would endanger their families and devalue other properties in the area, which has many lifestyle blocks. They were angry the site was selected without community consultation.

Despite continued reassurances from CYF that nothing will be done without public submissions, opposition to the plan is growing.

"It is very sad that the rights of up to 32 troubled youths have been put before a whole community, much of which is made up of families and children," said a letter from a resident of nearby Hamurana to the editor of Rotorua's Daily Post last week.

"If CYF cares so much about children and their welfare, then why are they proposing to set up a prison 1.4km from a thriving school?"

Protest signs have sprung up around Kaharoa and action group chairman Don Hammond says thousands of people from there and the wider Rotorua community have signed a petition opposing the plan.

"There's an undercurrent of real anger that they have been abused by the Crown."

Mr Hammond said his group accepted the need for a youth justice facility but the Government owned substantial tracts of land that were more suitable.

They included 1500ha at Waikeria, where there was already an adult prison, and forestry plots in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

"Why do the taxpayers have to buy more land for fundamentally the same purpose?" he said.

The action group has hired high-profile lawyer Mai Chen to put together submissions stating the community's objections.

She is also expected at tomorrow's meeting.

CYF spokeswoman Rhiannon Symmons said department officials would attend and were pleased by the community's invitation.

"It's a great opportunity to get information to them first-hand," she said.

CYF has extended a deadline for public submissions to March 18. It will then compile a report for Child, Youth and Family Minister Ruth Dyson.