News Release 

Thursday 27 February 2014

Community feedback supports new direction for Rotorua

Feedback from the Rotorua community has confirmed to Mayor Steve Chadwick that there is strong public support for the council’s new direction for reshaping Rotorua’s future.

Following the drafting of Rotorua 2030 ‘Tatou tatou - we together,’ the base strategic vision for the district, councillors canvassed the community late last year for feedback on their proposed vision, goals and more immediate 2016 priorities.

“We’ve now analysed all the feedback generated through engagement with councillors and staff last year about our vision for the community through to 2030,” said Mrs Chadwick.

“Our community clearly cared enough to offer their thoughts and suggestions and their verbal feedback was overwhelmingly positive, while written and online survey results also confirm we’re on the right track. This has added exciting and relevant community input our annual plan discussions this week.

Rotorua 2030 sets out seven major long term goals, along with four key priorities for the council and community to achieve together by the end of the current three-year council term in 2016.

During November and December councillors engaged with residents across the district seeking both verbal and written feedback. The verbal feedback was strongly positive while results from the 200 completed survey forms showed 93% support for the seven key goals for 2030 and 91% endorsement of the 2016 priorities. Additional comments received around wording and further ideas are currently being blended into the Rotorua 2030 document. 

“The fact that people took the time to consider and comment on the future aspirations for our city and district strongly suggests that council is going in the right direction by creating meaningful discussions and partnerships with our community and other stakeholders,” said Mrs Chadwick.

“As a council we remain committed to working with our community to ensure the destination we’ve identified together is the right one – for without a clear and agreed destination our journey to the future can’t be successfully navigated.”

This week’s annual plan forums for councillors will result in a draft 2015/16 annual plan document being released for public consultation at the end of March, with hearings and set for May and adoption of the plan at the end of June. 

ENDS

© Scoop Media