12 October 2017
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Auction of Western Rd properties
Inquiry
[The Council-owned Western Road houses which went up for auction today] all failed to meet the reserve so did not sell.
1. What is the next step given the houses failed to sell?
2. Was the outcome what council was expecting? why/why not?
3. Speaking with the main bidder, he said council was perhaps expecting to get too much for the houses - will council reconsider the reserves set in light of this?
4. The highest bids reached $235,000, $160,000 and $155,000 before being passed back to the agent - What do you think about this?
Response
From Chief Financial Officer Thomas Coll
The purpose of selling the properties is to recover public money. The properties did not meet the market appraisals we had done and we will now consider our next steps.
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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: 2017 NRB satisfaction survey
Inquiry
We had this in our briefs section on September 1:
Rotorua Lakes Council has received the results of its annual Community Satisfaction Survey, conducted by the National Research Bureau, a council spokeswoman has confirmed. She said the performance measures were currently being audited by Audit NZ and a report was being prepared for the Operations & Monitoring Committee meeting on October 5, at which time the survey would become public.
Could you please indicate whether this survey has become public and where it can be found.
Response
The Satisfaction Survey became available online when the performance measures were reported to the Operations & Monitoring Committee last week [5 October] and can be found HERE on Council's website
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Media: Rotorua Weekender
Topic: Tales at Twilight event
Inquiry
I'm working on a story for this week's Weekender about the Tales at Twilight event coming up next week. I understand the theme of the event is mud to help promote the Mudtopia Festival. I've been given Julianne Wilkinson's name as a contact and I was wondering if it is possible to get a few comments from her to a couple of questions:
- In what way is mud being incorporated into the Tales at Twilight event next week?
- Why was it decided to have the theme of mud?
- Why should people come along to Tales at Twilight/what will they enjoy about it?
Response
Please attribute response to Julianne Wilkinson, Principal Advisor, Recreation & Environment:
The Travelling Tuataras will be telling stories, myths and singing songs from New Zealand and around the world which involve an element of mud, such as Hatupatu and the history of the Pink and White Terraces.
Their stories often involve interaction with the audience, so there will be an opportunity for children to help create a mud man' as the story progresses.
To feel like they are involved in the stories they can also paint their faces with mud, create objects out of clay and share their muddy' experience on social media using the Conservation Week hashtag #lovemybackyard or the Mudtopia hashtag #Mudtopia.
Given the theme for Conservation Week this year is love my backyard', everyone in Rotorua has geothermal mud in their backyard.' The upcoming 1 - 3 December, Mudtopia festival is a celebration of that.
Incorporating mud into our Conservation Week event is a great opportunity to celebrate one of Rotorua's unique geothermal landscape features which contributes strongly to our history, culture and special active environment.
The connection with Mudtopia created an opportunity for the community to get involved and have a taste of what the festival is about.
Tales at Twilight is a fun and relaxed activity for families with younger children. Kids will enjoy the drama, music and singing and can be involved as little or as much as they like. Take a picnic and enjoy being together in one of Rotorua's most beautiful and accessible recreational forests. Good clean (apart from the mud!) free activity for the whanau.
