Official Information Request - Sports & Physical Activity

Sent: Tuesday, 16 November 2021 4:14 pm
Subject: Official Information request - Council Initiatives on Sport & Physical Activity

I refer to your letter of 18 October 2021 regarding Council initiatives on sport and physical activity – 2018-2021. Please find the following information as per your request:

Question 1 – List of initiatives of active recreation for youth

Attached below is the compiled list of sport and active recreation events that Council supports in the Sport & Recreation area. This support occurs via direct funding (sponsorship), staff facilitation time and value-in-kind for other services such as meeting Council contracted supplier costs, marketing etc. Also attached is a spreadsheet that outlines what youth events we have hosted in our city in 2021 (includes COVID-19 postponed and cancelled events). Depending on the category will depend on the detail provided with more detail in Sponsored, National-Regional and Seasonal Events. The level of support is noted below for earlier years but compiling all of this additional information would take considerable time and is less robust that our most recent data that has the greatest relevance to the information requested.

1. 2021 Sponsored Events – Data includes commercial/community or not-for-profit, length of contract, cash value, in-kind value, value support etc. These events have been running for the last four years at a similar level of Council support.
2. 2021 National-Regional Events – Data as per sponsored events above. Most of these events have been running for several years at least and we have ongoing contracts or agreements for them to continue.
3. 2021 Community Sport & Recreation Events – The data is less robust for earlier years but the 2021 data but is an example of bookings we have in the community space. These bookings require various levels of Council support to facilitate or even support with reduced reserve hire or funded services.
4. 2021 Seasonal Bookings – These list the annual agreements we have with various sports clubs and codes for ongoing use of Council facilities. Because they are seasonal bookings they occur each year and the list details the code charges relative to the Council incurred cost to supply the required level of service for playing surfaces.
5. Forest Activities and Events – This sheet details the activities and events that have youth involvement and that Council facilitates in the Whakarewarewa Forest as part of our agreement with the landowners to manage recreational activities in the forest. The list contains youth specific activities/events and also youth categories in general activity events. We have calculated that Council’s support for all active recreation/sport activities in the Whakarewarewa Forest would total approximately $470k for the 20-21 year and this includes all the trail maintenance, forestry and visitor asset maintenance, safety funding and user monitoring. Unfortunately we cannot break this down to youth specific support vs general public support.

Council also supports significant youth initiatives in the Aquatic swimming sports and active recreation space. The Council subsidises the annual running of the Rotorua Aquatic Centre to the order of $600k per year to provide aquatic recreation activities for Rotorua residents and admission data from 2021 shows that 59% of admissions are for children and students.

In addition, the Safe & Sustainable Journeys team provides a cycling programme (partially funded by Waka Kotahi) to encourage the uptake of ‘active transport’ ie: walking or cycling instead of using cars to get between places. To achieve this, RLC deliver cycle skills training in schools and undertake cyclist/driver road safety education. Although not specifically aimed at encouraging youth recreation and sport, the programme is encourages physical activity and gives young people the skills to also try recreational cycling – in the forest or on the roads.

Question 2 – Total Investment

Sports & Recreation
This can be established from the attached spreadsheets and information above depending on the criteria applied.

Safe & Sustainable Journeys
Between 2018-2021 the following was spent on the Bike Ready programme (cycle skills training delivered in primary and intermediate schools):

Question 3 – Strategic document on active recreation

See attached below Sport & Recreation Strategy.

Question 4 – Evaluation of strategy/initiative

We have not completed an evaluation for the Sport & Recreation Strategy. We have a range of evaluations from event data, including Event Economics from particular youth sport related events. An example of the Event Economics dashboard for the waka ama is attached. There is other Event Economic data available but it is for multi-aged participant events so extracting youth related evaluations is not available.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

Publication of responses to LGOIMA requests

Please note: Our LGOIMA responses may be published on the Rotorua Lakes Council website after they have been responded to, with requesters’ personal details withheld. If you have any concerns about this please contact the Council on info@rotorualc.nz .

Regards