18 September 2023
Media: Radio NZ
Topic: CBD community hub
Enquiry
Just curious about how the safety hub in Rotorua is coming along.
- Has a site been found for it to be built?
- Auckland is getting some new safety hubs also, with help from central govt. Has the govt dedicated any funding to the safety hubs in Rotorua yet?
Any other developments would be amazing.
Response
The following information was provided:
Mayor Tapsell provided an update on the community safety hub last week and you can watch this here. Further information about this is also available on our website here.
Mayor Tapsell has written to Minister Andersen seeking funding support from Government for this initiative and we have not received any response.
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Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Historical reinterments
Enquiry
Some follow up questions about the Sala St Cemetery:
Where is the site he was referring to?
Who were the people buried?
Do their families know they will/have been uninterred and will be moved?
Have they already been uninterred? If no, when will this happen? If yes, when?
How many were there?
How was/is this done?
Why was it needed?
What challenges are there associated with this?
Any other info or comment?
Response
The following information was provided:
The information used by Rob Pitkethley and Stephanie Kelly in their presentation was from the Rotorua Township Reserves Management Plan 2006.
We have attached below a timeline of Sala St Cemetery to give context to what Rob and Stephanie were referring to. This should give you an understanding that the majority of information you are requesting is historic, Council does not hold the records of who and how many people were buried in the cemetery from 1883 to 1890.
The re-interments that took place in 1958, council would have to search through historical records to see if we hold that information. However, I can give you the location of where the Sala St Cemetery was first located. It was situated in the area where Palmers Rotorua, Gardeners Landscape Supplies and Mechanical Piping Services are now located.
Sala Street Cemetery Time Line:
1880: When the Fenton Agreement was signed in 1880, it made provision for 40 acres to be set aside for a public cemetery, and the existing one to be closed.
1883: the occupants of the Pukeroa Cemetery, were relocated to the new Puarenga Cemetery which was located south side of Te Ngae Road ‘just west’ of the Puarenga Stream.
1899: Sala St Cemetery moved to its current location. The old site was no longer used but the graves were not shifted until 1958.