Te Pihinga Community Centre

Napier's Long Term Plan consultation is now closed.

Thank you for taking the time to make a submission. Your feedback is really important to us. All feedback will be considered before Council adopts the Long Term Plan on 30 June 2021.

Option One - Do it now 2021-2023

We would spend the rest of 2021 finishing the design, working up the operating model and completing tendering processes.

These timeframes would challenge our ability to achieve added benefits such as social procurement (jobs and training for locals) and environmental outcomes (smart building practice etc).

Option Two- Do it a bit later 2023-2025

With this timeframe, we would be able to develop our design, explore options for the operating model, confirm partnerships and other funding sources, and develop a social procurement plan to achieve jobs and training for locals. Although we’re still exploring how the facility could be best run, we’ve already set aside budget for some of its operating costs when it will open in 2025/26.

Option Three - Don't do it

As a Council, we know we need to fund a range of programmes and projects to help address growing social issues that impact all of Ahuriri. The requirement for a community facility has been established through a number of processes including a CPTED assessment (Crime Prevention through Environmental Design) and countless consultation processes. If we don’t move ahead, we would need to find other ways to meet the growing social needs of our community.

Te Pihinga has been years in the making. From around 2013, a number of state houses were removed from Maraenui, creating large parcels of unused land. Since then, we have been working with appropriate agencies to come up with an urban development plan focusing on growing economic and social prosperity in the area.

Changes have already started to happen with developers building new houses with more planned. To support this growth and to create positive opportunities for whānau development, particularly for rangatahi, we have worked with the community and developed a concept for a new community facility (Te Pihinga).

The facility provides a flexible environment that can respond to changing needs while recognising the community’s identity and values. With a focus on employment, training and entrepreneurship it will provide facilities that grow talent and enable the community to thrive.

The space will host programmes and provide tools that will challenge people to reach their potential through a range of activities, attracting people from around the city.

A key focus for the construction of the facility will be to create jobs and training opportunities for locals. This approach dials up the economic and social benefits of the project straight away, before the doors are even open. Known as ‘social procurement’, it is an approach we want to take with future projects across Council.

We see this project as an investment in our longterm future, creating positive opportunities for our young people and others in the community who need support, and creating a level playing field for all.

This project was included in our last Long Term Plan, but recognising we have some work to do on getting the basics right in our city (e.g. water services), we’re now proposing to push the timing out a couple of years. While we wait, there are preparations to undertake (site investigations and detailed designs). We aim to start construction in 2023.

This approach also gives us time to firm up funding from other partners. While initial discussions with potential funders have been positive, as a key community project the bulk of the funding is proposed to come from Council. We have increased the value of our proposed contribution in order to allow the main building to proceed. Funding from external sources will allow additional phases to be brought forward.