6 Aug 2025: new Rotoiti court, homeless sleep pods
Media: Aukaha News
Topic: New basketball court at Rotoiti
Enquiry
Ko Te Kawa Paora tēnei o Aukaha News,
I’ve recieved the Kōrero about the recently built basketball court in Rotoiti, we’d love to cover this kaupapa,
I just wanted to ask if you had contact details for the people or orgs involved with building this court? And if their are any local basketball players as well?
Do you also have a location for this court?
Response
We put the reporter in touch with the Rotoiti Sports Association chairperson and gave him directions to where the courts are located.
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Media: Radio NZ
Topic: Sleeping pods for homeless
Enquiry
We’re following up on this story today and will have Hilton McLachlan on our programme.
Hilton says in the story Council should’ve asked how can we help… Could council have helped the project?
Happy with a statement from council if we could have it in the next couple of hours?
We have the statement below which seems to be similar to what was used in the Daily Post story?
If there’s any updated statement we’d love it
What RLC provided previously:
Nobody wants people to sleep rough and our staff, the police and other groups we work with encourage people to take up help and support that is available, including for housing.
Council has a legal responsibility for public safety and regulations relating to provision of accommodation are about protecting people. We cannot knowingly ignore the regulations.
Once aware of plans for sleeping accommodation for rough sleepers we requested a meeting with the group to understand their plans and provide advice as we had not received a consent application or request for information about requirements they might need to meet.
We have not been able to properly advise the group as they have not shared any information with us about what they plan to do or are doing, how or where.
We advised that any type of accommodation requires consent before starting operations and encouraged them to get this process underway. We also advised them that we are happy to continue working with them to guide them through the consent processes.
Subsequent additional question 1: Hilton told me that council reps – e.g Robert Lees went to his workshop and called the town planner and the town planner told him there wasn’t any reason why the pods couldn’t be used to house the homeless – are you able to check with the town planner on that?
Subsequent additional question 2: Can I just ask – would council support the use of these pods for homeless people if some land could be found?
Response
We provided the following information:
As of today (6 August 2025) we have not heard anything more from Love Soup so still have no details to enable us to properly assess what might be required and provide any assistance, advice or guidance.
As we have previously said, nobody wants people to sleep rough and our staff, the police and other groups we work with encourage people to take up help and support that is available, including for housing.
Council has a legal responsibility for public safety and regulations relating to provision of accommodation are about protecting people. We cannot knowingly ignore the regulations.
Once aware of plans for sleeping accommodation for rough sleepers we requested a meeting with Love Soup to understand their plans and provide advice as we had not received a consent application or request for information about requirements they might need to meet.
We have not been able to properly advise the group as they have not shared any information with us about what they plan to do or are doing, how or where.
We advised that any type of accommodation requires consent before starting operations and encouraged them to get this process underway. We also advised them that we are happy to continue working with them to guide them through the consent processes.
Re ‘town planner’ conversation with Cr Lee: We do not know who Cr Lee spoke to so can’t comment on this.
Re would council support use of these pods: As we’ve said previously, without details we are unable to provide proper advice and we do not think it’s appropriate to make an assessment on consenting requirements based on images in a media article.
