Rotorua Lakes Council rural community board chairman Colin Guyton checks out new facilities at Reporoa’s Taylor Place reserve. Photo / Laura Smith
Benches, swings and CCTV – these are the small purchases making a difference to rural Rotorua.
Rotorua Lakes Council’s Rural Community Board represents about 8000 ratepayers.
It gets $125,000 in devolved funding from the council to put towards its communities. The money does not roll over, so if it isn’t spent by the next financial year, it is lost.
Chairman Colin Guyton thinks the board gets good value out of it.
Previously, much of the funding went towards community hall upkeep or council project add-ons, but the board wants more community members to get in touch with their ideas. The next opportunity is in March.
Guyton told councillors at a December council meeting the board tried something new this year and called on its residents to come up with projects.
Of the 15 ideas submitted, 11 fit its criteria – a few were a bit too “ambitious” – and the board went ahead with five of them.
The funding can only be used for council-owned assets. It can be something on council-owned land, council buildings or local roads.
Other projects funded for the 2023/2024 financial year included picnic tables, school bus shelters, CCTV cameras and maintenance at Mamaku Pavilion.
One project Guyton especially enjoyed was a new $14,000 swing in Reporoa’s Taylor Place reserve, near State Highway 5. It has since been joined by a new stone bench and mini basketball court, which the council will continue to maintain.
The changes were inspired by two boys, Louie Lucas, 11, and Mason Hartnett, 13, who contacted the council wanting to see the community asset upgraded.
Previously, the reserve had only a small patch of grass.
Speaking to Local Democracy Reporting at the new swing, Guyton said it was these “little things” that meant a lot to rural communities.
Those communities also tended to pitch in where needed, he said, which helped keep the cost of projects down. For instance, the board would be paying $8000 for the materials of a fence that a local had volunteered to install for free.
“It means our $125,000 goes a little bit further.”
The community also donated $10,000 towards new CCTV in the Reporoa township.
“Potentially we’ll solve some serious crimes somewhere along the line.”
The bulk of the 2024/2025 funding, $80,000, went towards a new footpath and raised courtesy crossing outside Mamaku School.
Infrastructure and assets group manager Stavros Michael said fencing for the Taylor Place reserve was expected to be finished in the new year and a small pump track may be added in the future, though this was not scheduled.
The council paid for the reserve’s new basketball court, hoop and bench, two trees, a picnic table, installation, site prep, cushion fall, line painting, and clean-up, with the project totalling $31,241.
Lakes Community Board chairman Phill Thomass said the board’s projects tended to be fewer but larger. A recent example was a Rotoiti basketball court project split over several years.
So far this year funding included paying for a swimming pontoon for a yet-to-be-determined lake community and the Hamurana boat trailer parking area to be resurfaced.
“People were just parking up on a dirt patch basically.”
The board received project ideas from drop-in sessions it held throughout the year.
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist since 2019.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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