21 March 2019

Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: Rotorua Multicultural vigil to support Muslim community

Enquiry

May you please supply me with a comment as to why the council has decided to add more parking and how many people are expected to attend the city's only civic remembrance to honour those who lost their lives in the Christchurch mosque shootings?

Response

Organisers are expecting a high turnout for the multicultural vigil and reflection. Council is supporting this event and has opened up an area of the Lakefront reserve to use as parking to help accommodate for the expected turnout. This is to make it as easy as possible for people to attend.

Council often does this when major events are hosted on the Village Green.

The following are also some key messages which may be useful.

• Bring a chair or blanket as seating is very limited.
• A condolence book will be available to sign, but feel free to bring your own signs or messages of support.
• Collection buckets will also be available and this will go to the Givealittle page.
• Be mindful of your surroundings and please take rubbish with you when you leave.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post

Topic: CBD safety

Enquiry

I'm just emailing about the CBD response which was [previously] given to [our reporter].

I would just like to clarify a couple of things in relation to the statement " joint patrols will continue through the winter months at a slightly reduced level".

- Does this mean there will be the same number of patrols but fewer people on each patrol, or fewer patrols and the same number of patrollers, or fewer patrols and patrollers?

- When is this reduction due to begin and run until? You say winter months. So does that mean June 1 until August 31? Or has a reduction already occurred?

- If so does that mean the patrols are the same now as they have been in summer?

Further received:

I understand some comments said in the story haven't been put back to you for response.

The comments I'd like to give you a right of reply to are:

- One business owner said it felt like the summer safety police presence had already dropped and he felt it needed to be reinstated or more shops would shut. He said "Our streets are not safe. A lot of people just won't come into town because of it."

- Another said people often outside their shop, were seen fighting, swearing, passing out, banging into their windows and intimidating them and passers-by.

- Another said the behaviour in the streets was having a flow-on effect of dead streets, no customers, and would eventually result in more empty shops.

Please let me know if you will be responding, otherwise we will have to write the council did not respond by deadline.

Response

From Operations Group Manager Henry Weston:

The aim of the joint safety campaign between police and Council is to create a safe environment for everyone who works in and visits the CBD.

While our CCTV monitoring picks up a lot of activity and in some cases allows us to be proactive about deescalating a situation before it becomes a problem, it is really important - as both Council and the police have previously emphasised - that people report anti-social and criminal behaviour, including intimidation, to the police, as its happening, so that it can be dealt with.

We continue to meet with police for daily briefings and reports of antisocial behaviour in our inner city are low, and have significantly decreased since the implementation of the summer safety campaign.

Provided as information not as quotes:

The summer safety campaign is currently operating as it has done all summer.

The winter campaign will run from early April until late September.

This will involve a reduction in patrollers not in patrols. Patrollers will reduce from eight to six. This level of patrolling will be monitored and reviewed and additional patrollers can be reinstated if required.

Council is also currently recruiting for an additional CCTV operator to increase our active CCTV monitoring hours from 40 to 80.

Regarding the comments you have provided referring to the level of police presence and behaviour such as fighting, drug taking and intimidation - these should be directed to the police for comment rather than Council.

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Media: Stuff

Topic: GODZone event

Enquiry

Dropping you a line with some queries re the recent Godzone event announcement. I wanted to ask:

Is council contributing money towards the event, and if so how much and what for?

Is there any forecast of how much of an economic contribution the event will contribute to Rotorua?

I note the release says the event has typically been held in the South Island - did council lobby for it to come here, or was it the suggestion of the organisers?

Response

From Sport, Recreation and Environment Manager Rob Pitkethley:

This was one event that Rotorua did not have to bid for and that is something we are very proud of. GODZone organisers identified Rotorua as the preferred place to host Chapter 9 because they consider it to be the adventure capital of the North Island and because Rotorua has a stellar' reputation for delivering similar events such as the Tarawera Ultra Marathon and Crankworx.

Rotorua Lakes Council and Rotorua Economic Development are contributing $60,000 to support the event and the costs of bringing it to the North Island for the first time. This includes activities such as movement of personnel, infrastructure and course recces. Similar to other events we have supported, we expect to also offer in-kind support such as venue hire, waste and janitorial services and equipment for health and safety. As the event is based outdoors and across the region and teams are largely self-sufficient, we expect that the in-kind support will mainly be needed at the opening and closing activities.

GODZone is considered the world's largest expedition race and has a large overseas following. At this year's event there were 250 competitors plus a large number of staff, volunteers, media and event managers who stay an average of 10 - 15 days in the competition region purchasing accommodation, food, rental vehicles and participating in sight-seeing activities. This is on top of the international media exposure into rapidly growing key adventure sport markets in Europe, South/North America and Australia.

*NOTE: Read the announcement re this event coming to Rotorua HERE on Council's website

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Media: NZME

Topic: Council media policies/guidelines

Enquiry

Please can you send through copies of any rules or protocol documents relating to how staff and elected members should interact with media/journalists.

This request is for news purposes as opposed to an admin request.

Response

Please find [HERE] Rotorua Lakes Council's Media Communications Policy for staff.

This is an internal policy.

It is currently under review and the existing policy (as attached) will remain in effect until the updated policy is adopted later this year.

Regarding elected members, you'll find reference to Contact with Media on p4 (see 3.12) of the Rotorua Lakes Council elected members' Code of Conduct which you'll find HERE on Council's website.