RDRR Petitions Against Council’s Proposed Lakefront Redevelopment

Press Release, Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers, 2 October 2018

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Rotorua residents and ratepayers are offered a petition to oppose Rotorua Lakes Council’s Lakefront Redevelopment proposal. It will destroy the current lakefront walkway, retaining wall and parking, disturb culturally significant sites, remove dozens of car parks, and needlessly waste $54.7 million of taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ money.

“RDRR objects to millions from the Provincial Growth Fund going into the Lakefront Redevelopment because it is impractical,” said Glenys Searancke, Chair of the RDRR. “The current promenade, wharf and parking are functional and much photographed. The proposed walkway will be a wooden eyesore because it will need to be robust enough to support machinery needed to remove tonnes of weed deposited annually by northerlies. Those advantaged by improved sight lines should pay for moving the Scout Hall and the war canoe.”

Let’s not forget, she said, that the millions are not ‘Government funding’ but taxpayers’ money. The ‘matching funds’ are not ‘Council funds’ but ratepayers’ money. Neither the Government nor the Council, she pointed out, offered public hearings before making the decisions, so they lack legitimacy, especially if more borrowing adds to Council’s debt.

“The Lakefront Redevelopment is not really a priority compared to reopening our Museum to restart the cash flows,” said Reynold Macpherson, Secretary of the RDRR. “Any spare cash should be used to earthquake proof the Museum and SHMPAC ¬to get local groups operating again, along with professional managers, and to fund other improvements as they can be afforded.”

The detailed Lakefront Redevelopment plans and the so-called ‘economic impact analysis’, he said, are not yet published and verified, so the ‘guesstimates’ of jobs, private investment, tourism expenditure and GDP impacts are implausible. The co-planners and beneficiaries are publicly stated as the ‘co-governance’ partners of the Council. In effect, he said, the proposal would deploy $54.7 million of public funds to serve iwi interests.

“The current lakefront was refurbished about 28 years ago when the CBD and its stormwater, wastewater and fresh water infrastructure was modernized,” said Councillor Peter Bentley, “but that bill of about $27 million has yet to paid off. Why get into more debt by wasting money on a project that no one had heard of a year ago?”

It also seems that many on Council also have no respect for culturally sensitive sites, he noted. Why convert Memorial Drive, the parade ground for our returned servicemen and women, into a car park? Why replace a dozen commemorative trees with a cairn? Why endanger the Village Christmas Tree? Why does Council’s ‘co-governance’ structure believe it can disregard the wider public interest?

The RDRR’s petition is attached for printing, collecting signatures, and returning to Reynold Macpherson, 484 Pukehangi Road, Rotorua, by 1700 on Wednesday, 24 October 2018. Thank you.

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