16 August 2023
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Rotorua progress since 2022 pre-election report
Enquiry
Reporter looking back at the pre-election report 2022 sought comment about and insight into what the mayor thinks has changed in that time.
Reporter also provided THIS LINK to an article published when pre-election report was released last August and had the following questions:
- Any general comment on the report findings and progress or changes to now?
- Overall, has the city changed for the better, worse or no change? In what ways?
- What work has council done since then to address issues raised, and have these been successful?
- What else needs to be done to improve?
- Key areas of housing and crime: how have these issues been tracking since the report was released?
- What did the mayor think of the report when it was released? Any messages from the community?
- It said the council was concerned measures of wellbeing – such as home and rental affordability, crime, income and secondary school retention - were worsening in Rotorua compared with other regions. Any update on this?
- Crime - shared 66th as worst in country: thoughts on this topic from when report was released to now?
- Opportunities going forward?
Response
From Rotorua Mayor, Tania Tapsell:
“Rotorua is now a better place for all.
“The new Council hit the ground running and we’ve made positive progress on things that matter to the community.
“We stopped the spend and fixed a $5.6million deficit. We are solving the Fenton Street issues and reducing the use of motels for emergency housing. We’ve partnered with Police to combat crime and antisocial behaviour with positive results, and we are restoring Rotorua’s reputation and fortunately have seen tourism bounce back.
“Business confidence is up and the majority of feedback from local surveys say Rotorua is improving*.
“Emergency housing motels was the big issue and within two months of the election we had signed the Rotorua Housing Accord. The first collective commitment of its kind between Council, Government and Te Arawa to improve the housing situation in Rotorua and reduce the use of emergency housing in Rotorua to near zero as soon as possible.
“Since October, the number of motels used for emergency and temporary housing has dropped from 45 to 27 (as at June 2023) and the number of households in emergency and temporary housing has reduced from 435 to 327.
“There is still work to do and as a Council we will continue to build on this momentum through our priority areas - economy, infrastructure, community and housing.
“We are also making improvements internally and have changed the Executive Team structure to more efficiently and effectively deliver on these priority areas.
“Looking ahead, and to improve community safety, we are partnering with Police to share resources with a goal of better visibility and responsiveness.”
NOTE *This is evidenced by 48.2% of Rotorua Business Pulse Survey respondents describing Rotorua as ‘improving’ or ‘resilient/potential’ in April this year compared with 42.7% of respondents describing Rotorua as ‘in a bad state’ or ‘run down/flat’ in October.