Agenda of Community Services Committee

COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE
Membership:	9
Meeting Cycle:	Meets on a six weekly basis, as required or at the requisition of the Chair
Quorum:	Half of the members
Reports to:	Council

19 02 May 2019

Community Services Committee

24 April 2019

File: (19/515)

Report no: CSC2019/2/84

Te Whiti Park Proposed Extension

Purpose of Report

1. The purpose of this report is to provide feedback on a request by the Te Aroha Sports Association (the Association) to include budget in the 2019/2020 Annual Plan, to complete the sports pavilion at Te Whiti Park by extending the new changing rooms to include a multipurpose space for club and community use.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee:

(i) notes that officers have been in discussions for some years with the Te Aroha Sports Association with regard to a concept development plan for Te Whiti Park;

(ii) notes that a part of the Plan is the construction of a new changing room facility, which has been completed;

(iii) notes that a multi-purpose utility room was a part of the agreed changing room facility design but this was not constructed;

(iv) notes that the Association is seeking a one third funding commitment from Council to complete construction of the multi-purpose room as originally proposed; and

(v) recommends that the Community Plan Committee:

(a) considers a budget provision of $300,000 for a contribution towards completion of the sports pavilion at Te Whiti Park; and

(b) notes that any actual financial commitment would be subject to Te Aroha Sports Association raising the balance of funding for the completion of the project.

For the reasons outlined in the report.

Background

2. Officers and members of the Association since 2009 have held numerous meetings to discuss and agree on a concept development plan for Te Whiti Park. This is attached as Appendix 1.

3. The agreed plan adopted in 2013 provided for, among other things, the demolition of the old changing rooms, increased car parking access, internal walkway and access improvements, and the construction of a new toilet, changing room and multi-use facility. Internal officer estimates suggested the total value of works covered by the agreed plan was in the vicinity of $4.5m.

4. Council identified the need to replace the aged and “bunker style” changing rooms and allocated, in the 2009 Long Term Plan, a budget of $1.4m to be spent in the 2016/17 financial year.

5. The construction of the new toilets and changing facility was completed in 2018. This also included improvements to the internal road. The multi-purpose space was not constructed and no funding is currently in the Long Term Plan for any further improvements at Te Whiti Park.

6. The Association has made successive submissions to the Annual Plan process since 2013 to support the original concept plan and more recently, submitted to Council seeking budget approval to commit funding to the construction of the multi-purpose space attached to the changing facility.

7. The Association is again seeking a funding commitment from Council with the Association proposing a shared funding approach.

8. As part of Council’s asset sales programme, two properties located on Te Whiti Park formerly used by park custodians were sold. Council agreed with the Runanga and the Association to reinvest the proceeds of sale from the properties back into the park.

Discussion

9. The Association has a long history of working collaboratively with Council and other organisations in the delivery of community programmes and activities benefiting the community. In many regards the Association has been operating as a successful community and recreational hub for some years, aligning with the Council’s vision for integrated facilities and services.

10. Established in 1937, the Association currently has 12 affiliate clubs or organisations covering for example, rugby league, cricket, touch football, kapa haka, netball, and softball. The current membership is 1200. The Association operates under the umbrella of Te Runanganui o Taranaki.

11. The proposal by the Association is to implement the original design proposal to construct a multi-functional room attached to the changing rooms. The room will enable the Association to consolidate its sport and community operations in a single facility, and allow Council to improve the landscape and amenity aspect of the park by removing the buildings that are currently used by the Association.

12. The multi-purpose room was included in the original design for the recently completed changing rooms. However, a survey of the costs for the total facility at the end of the design phase showed that the $1.4m budget was insufficient to complete the entire building. Notwithstanding this and in anticipation of possible future budget allocations, officers applied for and obtained building and resource consents for the entire building on the basis that construction could be undertaken over two stages, and subject to funding availability. The approved consents expire in 2020.

13. The construction of the multi-functional space, essentially stage two, is estimated to cost $840,000 + GST and includes the demolition of two concrete buildings on the park currently owned by the Runanga.

14. While funding is being sought from Council, the Association is proposing to contribute up to a third of the total cost through direct funds and in-kind contributions, e.g. undertaking the fit-out of the space. The balance of the costs will be funded by Council and external Trust funding.

15. Council has in the past adopted a practice of agreeing to contribute to a project of this nature on the basis that the total cost is shared, usually on a third share basis. This is particularly the case where the asset contributes to community outcomes. For example, Council:

a. Contributed $200,000 in 2016 towards the renewal of the artificial hockey turf at Fraser Park (total cost was estimated at $600,000);

b. Budgeted $250,000 towards improvements at the Mitchell Park tennis facility;

c. Contributed $100,000 towards the relocation of the Waimarie Croquet Club

16. It is proposed that the room is leased to the Association with an annual rent being payable to Council. All costs related to power, rates and maintenance will be the responsibility of the Association.

17. The Association recognises the importance of the multi-functional space being a community asset. While the space will be used and managed primarily by the Association and Runanga for its community and sport initiatives, this will be during the week-day, with times outside of this being made available for bookings and use by other community organisations.

Options

18. There are three main options available:

a. Support the request entirely – this involves fully funding the project estimated at $840,000 + GST. Funding could be spread across two financial years to assist with funding management.

b. Support the request in part – this involves Council committing a minimum of $300,000 + GST to the project, with the Association and external Trust funding making up the balance. An extension of this support could be that Council underwrite any shortfall in the budget. Specific conditions could be placed on the support that may include limiting drawdown of the budget until full funding has been secured.

c. Decline the request – Council may consider this has merit but that funding priorities for a project of this nature when compared with other demands are limited at this time.

Consultation

19. A copy of this report has been provided to the Association.

Legal Considerations

20. Resource and building consent is already in place for the multi-purpose room. This consent expires in 2020 although an extension could be sought.

Financial Considerations

21. The total cost of the proposal under request is estimated at $840,000 + GST. The Association is seeking support from Council to enter into a shared funding contribution. A shared approach will see Council contribute a minimum of $300,000 + GST.

22. There will be costs related to the option of underwriting any shortfall of the project. The precise quantum of this is unknown at this time, although Council could place limits on this.

23. A lease of the multi-function room to the Association will attract an annual rent. Based on the Reserves Rental Formula this will be in the range of $1,000 + GST.

Policy Considerations

24. Te Whiti Park is co-managed with the Runanga and the Association under a formal agreement. This agreement has been in place for many years and recognises the cultural and historical significance the Park is to these parties.

25. The proposal is consistent with the Sportsgrounds Reserves Management Plan as it provides that where possible, as much of the park is retained as open space, which can be achieved through the reduction in the number of buildings on the park and consolidation of operations into a single facility.

26. The Association’s current operating model is consistent with Council’s integrated facilities (Sportsville) approach.

Other Considerations

27. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. The recommendations fall within the purpose of local government in that it is a statutory process delegated under statute to local government and required to enable a community use of a Council reserve.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Te Whiti Park Site Plan	21

Author: Aaron Marsh

Team Leader Parks

Approved By: Matt Reid

General Manager City and Community Services

Attachment 1

Proposed Lease Area - Ignite Sports Trust - Bell Park

Community Services Committee

16 April 2019

File: (19/483)

Report no: CSC2019/2/75

Proposal to Issue a Lease at Bell Park - Ignite Sports Trust

Purpose of Report

1. The purpose of this report is to seek approval to issue a lease to Ignite Sports Trust for a part of Bell Park

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Committee:

(i) notes that Ignite Sports Trust is interested in the purchase of the Lower Hutt Football Club building located on Bell Park and is negotiating with the owners, the Lower Hutt Association Football Club;

(ii) notes that without commitment from Council to issue a lease of reserve land, Ignite Sports Trust is unable to continue to proceed to the purchase of the building;

(iii) notes that the request is consistent with Council policy;

(iv) agrees to issue a lease for the area attached as Appendix 1 to the report to Ignite Sports Trust for a term of 30 years; and

(v) recommends to the Community Plan Committee that it considers a contribution towards the cost of a hard court surface area as attached as Appendix 2 to the report.

For the reasons outlined in the report.

Background

2. In December 2017, following community consultation, the decision was made to retain Bell Park as recreation reserve and operate it as a neighbourhood park. Previously it had been used as a sports ground for football, but with the relocation of the Lower Hutt City Football Club to Fraser Park that use has since ceased. In its current state it offers little amenity value to residents and users, with no footpaths, gardens or other features. The park also suffers from poor drainage in some areas, limiting its use for part of the year.

3. In December 2017, Ignite Sports Trust (the Trust) approached Council in order to gain support for a proposal to purchase the football club buildings from the Lower Hutt Football Club and re-locate its activities to Bell Park. Residents and officers are generally supportive of this proposal.

4. In order that the Trust can continue with the sale and purchase process, it is seeking approval from Council to issue a lease for a part of Bell Park

Discussion

5. Established in 2001, the Trust is predominantly a youth development organisation using sport and recreation to engage and encourage young people to achieve their full potential and to make a positive impact on their lives. The Trust mentors over 900 kids and young people annually to reinforce important life skills. It also delivers community programmes and events where over 4000 people have benefited.

6. Currently located in the service centre in Petone, the Trust for the past two years has been looking to consolidate its operations in one building and on one site. The Trust has identified Bell Park and the (former) Lower Hutt Football Club building as the ideal location for its operations.

7. The Trust has been negotiating with the football club to purchase the building and is in the final stages of making an offer. The Trust is keen to formalise a final offer and intends to do so subject to a condition that a lease of land from Council is forthcoming.

8. The issuing of a lease is predominantly for the footprint of the building although, in anticipation of developing a hard court area in the future, it is proposed to include an area of reserve immediately to the north of the building.

9. The presence of the Trust on Bell Park would have numerous benefits. It would enable the Trust to carry out its activities much more effectively and efficiently, notably reducing the travel time between sports venues. The benefits to the wider community include an increase in use of the reserve, thereby improving safety and visibility for casual users, as well as providing extra sports and recreation facilities.

10. Bell Park measures approximately 15,500m². The land is vested in Council as a recreation reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. The Park has an activity zoning of General Recreation under the District Plan. A site plan of the proposed lease area is attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

11. The proposed lease area measures 1,200m² (more or less) being 7.7% of the total reserve area. The issuing of a lease to the Trust will have no impact on the public’s use of the balance of the Park.

12. The Trust has previously sought funding from Council for the development of a hard court surface area which was a part of the draft landscape plan publicly consulted on in 2018. At that time the estimated cost for the courts was $250,000. The landscape plan is attached as Appendix 2.

13. While Officers are in support of the hard court in principle, and as such have included it within the overall park development plan, we have not assessed it as a high priority for a Council capital contribution within the next three years considering other funding pressures.

Options

14. The Committee could:

a. Decline the request to issue a lease. This is viewed unfavourably by officers. Such a move is seen as unsupportive of the good work that the Trust undertakes in the community. It also has an impact on the football club in that it will not be able to realise any value in the building.

b. Approve the request. Approval will ensure the Trust centralises its operations and continues to deliver its community focused sporting programme. Approval also allows the football club to surrender the current lease.

Consultation

15. Community consultation was undertaken in 2018 when Council reviewed what to do with the Park. That consultation and subsequent meetings with local neighbours showed, among other things, support for the Trust to locate its operations at the Park.

16. To ensure proper legislative process is followed and despite consultation undertaken already, officers propose to advertise Council’s intention to issue a lease. This will be advertised in the Hutt News in May. The purpose of the advertisement is to provide an opportunity for members of the public to make a submission on the lease proposal. Officers will report back to Council the results of the advertisement should submissions be received that are not in support of the proposal and/or where any submissions cannot be addressed or resolved.

17. In the absence of objections it is proposed that the issuing of a lease be processed according to the resolution sought in this report.

Legal Considerations

18. Council is guided by the requirements of the Reserves Act 1977. The proposal and process satisfies the statutory provisions.

19. Council’s generic reserves lease document will be used for this proposal.

20. It is proposed that a lease term of 30 years be approved. This length of lease will provide security for the Trust in terms of its likely significant investment to purchase the building.

21. The football club will surrender its lease of land should an agreement on sale be reached between the Trust and the club. This surrender is required prior to the issuing of any lease.

Financial Considerations

22. In accordance with Council’s Reserve Rental Policy, the Trust will be required to pay a lease charge of approximately $1,200 + GST per year.

23. The anticipated costs for a hard surface area are estimated at $250,000. Depending on the final scope of works this cost may be less.

Other Considerations

24. The Sportsgrounds Reserves Management Plan guides the use, maintenance and development of the reserves for which a lease or licence is being sought. The proposal to issue a lease to the Trust is in accord with the policies and objectives of the Plan

25. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. Officers believe that this recommendation falls within the purpose of local government in that it considers the future of a Council owned community asset.

Appendices

No.	Title	Page
1 ⇩	Proposed Lease Area - Ignite Sports Trust - Bell Park	30
2 ⇩	Bell Park Landscape Concept 1	33

Author: Aaron Marsh

Team Leader Parks

Approved By: Marcus Sherwood

Divisional Manager, Parks and Recreation

Proposed lease area to Ignite Sports Trust
Bell Park

58 02 May 2019

-Community Services Committee

09 April 2019

File: (19/449)

Report no: CSC2019/2/2

Activity Review – Community Hubs and Relationships including City Safety and Community Funding

Purpose of Report

1. The purpose of this report is to outline the results of a review of the Community Hubs and Relationships Team which includes the City Safety and Community Funding activity.

Recommendations

That the Committee:

(i) notes the information contained in this report;

(ii) notes that this review meets the intent of section 17A of the Local Government Act 2002; and

(iii) agrees that a full section 17A review should not be undertaken at present for the reasons outlined in the report.

Background

2. For the last three years, City Safety and Community Funding are the two activities that have sat within the Community Hubs, Relationships and Projects Team. From 2018/19, these activities were collapsed within the one activity of ‘Integrated Community Services’.

3. Activity Reports provide regular information about Council activities, so that activities can be analysed and their future direction considered. They also address the requirements of section 17A of the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA) that regular reviews be undertaken on the cost-effectiveness of current arrangements for meeting the needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions.

4. To ensure Councillors have full information this report focuses on ALL aspects of this team’s work, rather than just the formal activities of City Safety and Community Funding.

5. In October 2015, Walter Nash Centre opened and in early 2016, Council approved the budget for Koraunui Stokes Valley Community Hub. The Walter Nash Centre Manager was reporting directly to the General Manager City and Community Services at this stage, and with future hub facilities planned it was untenable for the General Manager to maintain direct reports across all future hub facilities. This resulted in a review of the City and Community Services Group Leadership Structure in December 2016.

6. As a result of the review a co-leadership approach was taken for Community Hubs, Projects and Relationships. The strong links between Community Hubs and Community Projects and Relationships ensure that community development principles are integrated throughout all hub work. Co-leadership has resulted in a joint set of values and expectations across our two divisions, empowering our front line staff to take ownership and decision-making responsibility within a supported environment.

7. We provide community services and partnerships largely through local community facilities. We have funding relationships with government agencies to provide safety initiatives. We also support our community through providing grants to community organisations and groups. We have three integrated community hubs or facilities that provide core community and other council services, with a further hub planned in Naenae. The hubs are focused on providing communities with opportunities for social and leisure activities, practical help and advice, and contributing to growing social capital.

8. Our approach, attitude and culture now focuses our community efforts where they are needed most and on projects and relationships that can make a meaningful, life-changing difference.

9. The existing structure now enables our divisions to work in a more deliberate and integrated way across both our City and Community Services Group and wider Council, ensuring a community development lens is used across the entire City. See below a structure diagram.

10. Outside of delivery of our core Council services, we have identified priority work areas for our Community Hubs, Projects and Relationships team:

a. Empowering our tamariki for a brighter future (see below)

b. Digital empowerment (aware of the growing digital divide);

c. Family violence (we have the 2^nd highest recorded rate of family violence in the country)

Empowering our Tamariki for a brighter future

11. We need every child growing up in Lower Hutt to thrive in order to support a future of high productivity, innovation, economic growth and improved social cohesion. Currently we have a significant number of our children, who aren’t getting what they need to thrive.

12. We know that 7,000 kids in Lower Hutt are living in communities of high deprivation, which is why Council made the decision to invest in a more targeted way in these communities.

13. These kids are fantastic, bright, talented young New Zealanders who for all sorts of reasons don’t have access to things that matter. They also face serious social issues including low household income, poor education, poor health and high crime rates.

14. Having a clear focus on our children that need it most flips our lens from ambulance at the bottom of the cliff to fence at the top. Our approach focusses on areas of health and wellbeing, education and housing and includes:

· Working with Central Government and other relevant non-government organisations where we have a shared objective and partnership can either increase our impact or deliver efficiencies, or both.

· Targeted delivery of core council services to these communities including libraries, digital literacy, physical activity programmes, art education, community-based art projects and some social services support.

· Working in communities in partnership with community groups, schools, whanau

· Enlisting partners and sponsors who can add resources and energy to the cause

15. Child Poverty is a complex social problem with multiple causes and consequences, so it needs a multi-layered solution which spans both short term and longer term approaches to reduce child poverty rates across our city in the future.

16. Overall Council’s role in this is:

· Local leadership

· Advocate for system change

· Framework to identify where resources should be focused

· Ensure core council community services are accessible

· Identify and work with partners to strengthen our impact

· Promote the vision and share stories to inspire others to support and contribute

We will focus on health and wellbeing, education and health – multi-layered, using best possible levers to us for each issue.

Our Current Work

17. Some of the work our teams have and are involved in includes the below items.

A large number of regular programmes across all hub sites in the arts, recreation and literacy areas such as; kapa haka, music, crafts and knitting, Zines, Zumba, minimovers, Tai chi, group exercise, Book groups/talks, stepping up, preschool story time, baby bounce and rhyme, family history, lego and more. Our regular programmes and services are critical in connecting people, assisting individuals learn new skills, ensuring our community are holistically well in their lives, and building social capital within the wider community.

As venues, our hub facilities are booked out 16,000 hours per annum (across all three sites), catering for a range of events and activities both led by Council, and by the community.

We continue to work closely with Youth Inspire both at a strategic level and operationally with offices in Naenae and Wainuiomata, as they actively work with our Rangatahi to transition them into employment and training for further education. A significant amount of time continues to be spent getting our rangatahi work/study ready, due to the complex range of issues faced by some of our rangatahi. Last year, a Sergeant from Hutt Valley Police was seconded to Youth Inspire and developed a graduated driver licensing programme. The aim of this programme is to transition rangatahi from learners to restricted then onto their full licence. This programme works with community volunteers who mentor the rangatahi and also includes professional driving tuition. Programmes like this are a priority, as we know that early driving offences for many of our youth are the entry point into criminal offending.

Partnership with Te Awakairangi Access Trust (TAKA): The flagship project for TAKA is the Secured Community WIFI initiative at Rata St School. In partnership with Chorus, Ministry of Education, Network for Learning and Rata Street School our priorities for the next couple of years are expected to contribute towards the enhanced learning and achievement by tamariki in the wider Naenae area with a roll out to other schools. The education system does the teaching, our partnerships will help create access to the tools that can make a difference. TAKA are also involved in many other activities such as the Community Concert, Bikes in Schools and scholarships with KPMG.

Walter Nash Centre hosts high profile events annually. Some examples include:

· Hutt Hospital Ball

· Polyfest

· HV Sports Awards

· International Darts

· National Judo

· International Volleyball

· Xroads

· Symphony in the Hutt

Naenae Akoranga Learning programme which has secured multiyear funding from MSD continues to be targeted at our tamariki that would benefit most from this structured learning programme. On average 50 local tamariki attend this programme daily, and the supervisors are rangatahi. Experiences provided over the last three years have included trips across the region (Te Papa, Zealandia) , tours of parliament by MPs, and increased access to Council’s core services and programmes by our partners. 2018/19 saw an increase in whanau engagement from previous programmes.

Koraunui Stokes Valley Hub Project came to a close in October 2017 after two years of work from a number of staff in this division and across Council. Since then, library memberships in Stokes Valley have increased by 600, attendance has doubled and 3-4 times the number of groups are using the new facility.

Access, Access, Access to stuff that matters through our external partnerships, for those who need it most.

Over the last 2 years we have helped facilitate:

· 2,000 tickets to Lions rugby matches

· 935 tickets to matches including transport

· 64 tickets and transport to CIGNA basketball games

· 50 tickets to Webber Brothers Circus

· 60 XRace tickets

· 30 Weetbix triathlon entries

· 1,200 tickets and transport to Symphony in the Hutt concert

· 100 tickets and transport to Moana concert at the Opera House

· 500 backpacks full of school supplies

· 100 music scholarships at Goodtime Music Academy

For the last seven years Council staff have used their annual volunteer day to support Council’s annual charity golf tournament. Previous funding raised has purchased bike tracks and play equipment for schools, and covered the cost of buses for low decile schools to use at their discretion. An average of $15k had been raised each year. In 2018, the Golf Tournament Organising Committee decided to align the tournament with Council’s strategic priorities. This led to the 2018 tournament raising $40k, all proceeds will go to TAKA Trust to support their WIFI project with Rata Street School.

Planning for the Naenae Community Hub has occurred between November 2017 and June 2018. Due to the Naenae Pool closure this work is currently on hold.

A first production run of the community created Kuputupu Māori word game was completed during 2017-18. Due to the demand nationally for this, a version Two has been created and is getting final IP sign off before on-going production occurs.

Enliven Connect (Senior’s Programme) a partnership opportunity arose working with Enliven Connect, DHB and Presbyterian Support Central, to pilot a mentoring programme for those displaying early onset of dementia. Since the pilot, additional funding was secured which has now enabled this programme to grow and will now focus on seniors living in isolation and loneliness including a diagnosis of early stage dementia.

City Safety - Highlights

Family Violence

Hutt Valley currently has the highest family harm statistics in the Wellington Region. Council is committed to reducing the effects of family harm, through collaborative partnerships with Police and various community and government organisations, under the umbrella of the Safe Hutt Valley forum.

Community organisations and initiatives, including White Ribbon, It’s Ok to Ask for Help Champions, Women’s Refuge and Te Whare Tane Trust for Men, will be instrumental in supporting Safe Hutt Valley’s commitment to reducing family harm. Te Whare Tane Trust has a facility that houses their offices, administration and clinics for the men’s groups. This facility will enable the Trust to extend their services to men. Plans for a residential facility will be subject to additional funding.

The White Ribbon Ambassadors have been chosen as the charity partner to Council’s successful Highlight: Carnival of Lights event in October 2019. This will provide an opportunity to promote the White Ribbon kaupapa to a wider audience and also receive funds raised during the festival to assist with on-going projects. The ‘Its OK to Ask for Help’ champions will partner with White Ribbon during the event and also receive financial support for their community projects.

One of the joint Hutt City Council and Upper Hutt City Council projects, is to attain White Ribbon accreditation. The documents and processes being developed will take into consideration the requirements outlined in the revised Domestic Violence – Victims’ Protection Act and will be presented to White Ribbon New Zealand for consideration.

Safe Hutt Valley

Working towards reaccreditation as a Pan-Pacific Safe Community in 2020, Safe City Hutt Valley will continue to set the pathway to ensure key safety concerns are being addressed in the Hutt Valley, including: preventing family harm, preventing crime, preventing injury, reducing harm from alcohol/substances, road safety and well-being.

Over the past three years, a number of projects have been delivered across the Hutt Valley. Bi-annually, the X-Roads project is delivered to over 1500 students in the Hutt Valley. This project focuses on youth making good choices around the use of alcohol and driving and is supported by various local and government organisations.

Safe City Ambassadors

Over the past three years, the improved and effective services the Safe City Ambassadors have been providing has seen an increased demand for their services at community and Council managed events. The community also acknowledge and appreciate their support and continue to request their presence to support community initiatives.

Neighbourhood Support and Community Patrol

Operational changes were made in 2017, which resulted in Council taking over the management of these projects. Previously this portfolio was managed by one full time employee and three part time/volunteers and is now managed by a sole Council officer who carries additional portfolios.

Council will promote Neighbourhood Support with a focus on connecting communities, growing the community’s resilience, neighbours/businesses supporting neighbours/businesses in the event of an emergency, support for victims of crime, identifying concerns and working towards positive solutions together.

To date, Lower Hutt has over 214 Neighbourhood Support network groups, made up of individual households and/or business groups. Group membership ranges from two to 24 members at any given time.

Volunteers throughout Lower Hutt City have continued to provide mobile community patrols and provide another set of eyes for Police. They are instrumental in providing a valuable service by checking local businesses and public facilities at night, reporting incidents to relevant agencies (Police, FENZ etc), assisting members of the public, supporting Police with information and promoting safety initiatives throughout Lower Hutt.

A Safer Plates initiative managed by the Community Patrols of New Zealand (CPNZ) patrol team was in response to the number of registration plates being stolen in the Hutt Valley area. With support from various Countdown stores and Council, registration plate screws were replaced to make it more difficult for offenders to remove plates, reducing the number of thefts.

Although recruiting new patrol members is a challenge, the teams are committed to the service. Council provides $5,000.00 each per annum to support the four existing CPNZ teams and their activities.

CCTV Operation

More than 40 volunteers manage the 48 Hutt City Council and 13 Upper Hutt City Council cameras, which are based in the Lower Hutt Police Station. Volunteers work together to provide coverage during the ‘high risk’ times of the week: Thursday/Friday/Saturday, between the hours of 3pm to 3am. When required, they also provide coverage during events outside these preferred hours of operation.

Over the past 12 months, requests from Police and members of the public have increased, which has required some volunteers to provide additional support in the CCTV suite. Over a 100 requests have been received in the past 12 months, with a success rate of more than 70%.

The commitment from these volunteers continues to provide a valuable service to the community and supports Police with their investigation processes.

Community Funding refresh has occurred. In 2017 Council adopted its Community Funding Strategy, which is designed to direct funds to those who need it most, improve the clarity and simplicity of our funding processes and encourage innovation, improve relationships and foster long term partnerships. Priority funding areas are:

· All tamariki in persistent poverty and or are vulnerable. Especially very young children, Māori and Pasifika children; and/or children in sole-parent families

· All rangatahi not in education, training or employment

· All kaumatua who are experiencing loneliness and social isolation

A significant amount of advice continues to be provided to community groups regarding funding, governance and management operations. Ongoing contract management and funding administration of the approximately $1M allocated to community groups.

Wainuiomata Hub Partnership with Tihei Rangatahi programme at Kokiri Marae will deliver a range of regular recreation and arts activities with this group of rangatahi in the local area.

Youth Council has completed submissions on Mental Health Inquiry, Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy and the NCEA review nationally. Locally they have attended a range of Council committees, board and panel meetings and given their voice on sustainability, homelessness, and district plan change 43 to name a few. Members continue to be involved in volunteering from foodbank drives, Garden Blitz, Plunket fundraisers, and hub events. Training and development opportunities continue to be offered and taken up by members, which included Mental Health 101 workshops, Festival of the Future and Aspiring leaders.

Establishment of the Inclusiveness and Accessibility Subcommittee, the result of work facilitated by members from our team and the Strategy and Policy Team.

Te Awakairangi Youth Development Network (TAYDN), formerly the Hutt Youth Workers Network, is now a legal entity and no longer reliant on Council funding. There are 26 paid member organisations, which now offsets the majority of costs associated with running the network and four associated events each year. Each event held attracts on average 80 attendees. TAYDN focus is on Connect (connect the youth development sector together) Support (support the sector through professional development and relevant training) and Change (positively change the lives of young people they work with).

Strategic Fit

18. The strategic documents which guide the delivery of services for this activity and team are ‘The Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy,’ ‘The Long Term Integrated Facilities Plan,’ ‘The SLT Business Plan’ and ‘The Community Services Group Strategic Plan’.

Present arrangements for governance, funding and service delivery

19. Governance and service delivery occur in-house within Council structures.

20. Included in Council’s 2019/20 Annual Plan for Projects and Relationships is:

	(000’s)
Community Projects and Relationship Team	630
City Safety	603
Community Funding	1,640
TOTAL	2,753

21. Main areas of spend across the above three areas are:

· Salaries (8.5 staff)

· Safety Programme (Safe City Ambassadors, Family Harm, CCTV maintenance and connectivity)

· Community Funding and associated administration

22. Included in Council’s 2019/20 Annual Plan for Hubs is:

	(000’s)
Walter Nash Centre (net operating including depreciation)	1,291
Walter Nash Centre (capital)	200
Koraunui Stokes Valley Hub (net operating including depreciation)	747
Koraunui Stokes Valley Hub (capital)	10
Wainuiomata Hub (net operating including depreciation)	908
Wainuiomata Hub (capital)	12
Hub Management and Division Overheads (net operating)	523
TOTAL	3,691

· The single largest area of operational spending in the above is staff.

23.

Current performance against KPIs

MEASURE	Target 2014-15	Target 2015-16	Target 2016-17	Target 2017-18
Walter Nash Centre >90% User satisfaction >450,000 visits per year Three or more significant events held	n/a	n/a	96% 771,000 5 significant events	100% 867,000 8 significant events
Community Hubs >90% user satisfaction	n/a	n/a	n/a	93%
Residents’ perceptions of Hutt City in terms of their sense of safety >81% overall o fthose expressing an opinion	Neighbourhood day 96% Neighbourhood night 81% CBD day 98% CBD night 66% 85% overall	Neighbourhood day 96% Neighbourhood night 82% CBD day 97% CBD night 63% 84.5% overall	Neighbourhood day 92% Neighbourhood night 77% CBD day 95% CBD night 58% 78.8% overall	Neighbourhood day 95% Neighbourhood night 78% CBD day 96% CBD night 68% 84% overall
Community organisations’ satisfaction with the availability and quality of our support, advice and funding >90% of those expressing an opinion	93%	97%	95%	96%

24. At the moment there has not been a huge investment in identifying community based measures/evaluation outside of Council reports and feedback from facilitated forums/events/programmes held by members of the team. The value of Council’s investment is expected to be evident in the longer term – there is no short term solution to addressing the equity imbalance across our city.

25. However, we have completed/initiated some evaluation methods either ourselves or through a third party:

a. Dot Loves Data concluded that young people of Lower Hutt, in particular Taita, are experiencing an environment that is positively shaping their interactions with the world (when compared against similar communities across NZ). Education outcomes are also improving, fewer kids are getting in trouble at school and they’re getting engaged in extra-curricular activities.

b. In 2018 a Social Return on Investment (SROI) was completed for Youth Inspire which showed a $11.60 return for every dollar invested by Council.

c. A SROI is being undertaken on the Walter Nash Centre in 2019 by our Strategy and Policy team. It is anticipated a further SROI will take place on the Koraunui Stokes Valley Community Hub (Koraunui) once they have been open for two – three years.

d. We conduct internal Fast Five surveys twice per year at each hub as a means to ascertain customer satisfaction. This complements the annual Council-wide residents satisfaction survey but gives a larger sample size for feedback on hubs specifically. The 2017/18 figures are below.

i. Fast Five Customer Satisfaction (across all hubs) 87.2%

ii. Fast Five Cleanliness (across all hubs) 95%

iii. Fast Five Value for Money (across all hubs) 79%

iv. Fast Five Customer Service (across all hubs) 99%

v. Fast Five Overall Satisfaction (across all hubs) 91%

vi. 2018 Resident satisfaction survey 100% for Walter Nash Centre and 93% for Koraunui

e. Increasing access for our communities to core services of arts, literacy and recreation is a key driver for our hubs. Annually our hub facilities are tracking at 1.3m individual visits. For Koraunui and Walter Nash Centre these numbers are approximately double previous access to all of the separate facilities combined. In Koraunui we also know that three to four times the number of different user groups are now accessing this facility than previously did. Wainuiomata Hub has remained at similar levels although there has been a diversification of activities offered to the community since becoming a hub. We are also open for longer hours than previously across all facilities.

We know that there are a large number of Council led and partnered programmes being delivered across sites. There is more work to be done in this area regarding targeting these programmes to ensure they align directly with the Children’s Commission research findings to ensure maximum impact.

Overall though, across metrics of access to quality facilities, attendance, library membership, hours booked, types of user groups and customer experiences the hubs are performing exceptionally well.

f. Benchmarking against other facilities is challenging given no other Council in New Zealand is delivering services in a similar way to Lower Hutt. We do know that our ratepayers are getting good value for money out of our new hub capital developments (please see appendix). Some library specific benchmarking (which includes libraries in hubs) will come via the Libraries Activity Report.

26. Whilst difficult to measure, we continue to see evidence of improving social capital, for example there has been a significant reduction in graffiti in the Taita community, a study into the retail area around Scott Court showed that spending (particularly in food and beverage) locally has increased since the hub opened, and the expansion of the successful Walter Nash Twilight Ball into Wainuiomata. We also have anecdotal evidence from community and our partners which shows the value that the community places on the activities and services we provide.

i) Twilight basketball

One young man to his mate on the return bus journey from Cigna Basketball event said “ I can’t believe we done all this tonight,” his mate replied “look what they gave all of us, they must be so rich.” And then to a father, not connected to either of these young men said, “we have been so blessed by these people who have shown they care for us by giving us this great opportunity. Remember this night, because one day we might be able to do the same for someone else who really needs our help.”

“At the one year birthday celebration a few weeks ago I was reflecting over the past year, since the hub has opened, and I have been meaning to send this email just so say how much I appreciate the SV community hub, and the impact it has had on my whanau.I did not have an active part in the planning of the new hub, (although I did fill in the community survey forms), but I was presently surprised with the amazing facility and resource that is now available! Over the past years I ‘popped in’ fortnightly or so to change books at the library; the staff were always friendly and helpful and I appreciated the library resources. With the new hub, we come are here an average of 3 days a week! My daughter plays the cello with Arohanui strings and I feel relaxed and welcome to sit in the bean bags and read books to my younger boys or let them play with blocks etc for the 2 hours, or safe to leave her and pick her up at the end. (She really enjoyed performing for the community at the birthday a few weeks ago!). We are really enjoying the range of the new children’s books over the past year! And also think it is great that the toy library is in a much safer environment, especially for the volunteers. We also appreciate using the hub facility for ‘homeschool science’ classes (run through HCC – House of Science). It is great to be able to meet at a community facility and connect with other home educating families, and to have the option for younger children to read etc while the older ones take the class.We hire the large room for our local church event about once a month. With this, we have been able to connect with a number in the community, and form ongoing relationships.We have lived in stokes valley more than 8 years, and I can honestly say that as a direct result of the SV community hub opening a year ago, I really feel ‘part’ of our local community. I appreciate the friendly staff and look forward to the year ahead, Arohanui, and thank you so much once again.”

ii) Wainuiomata Hub

“I grew up in Wainuiomata and this has been a major catalyst in my spiritual and mental growth, the librarians and other faculty do an exceptional job at providing a safe space to learn and discover. I have been fortunate to use the work services they have provided (youth inspire) that has helped me to successfully gain employment. I have spent many defining moments within these walls; fun times spent with family and friends exploring the abundance of knowledge and community connections that it has provided!”

iii) Walter Nash Centre

“I have lived in Taita for approx 10 years and to be honest there hasn't been much in the area to be proud of until recently. I think the Walter Nash venue is a huge success. I now see people from the community in a really positive environment (sport and literature). However, the best thing is the culture - it is unique (allowing people to chatter and play their guitar) which ensures it is used by the community. If the rules were more traditional the venue would be under-utilised.”

iv) TAKA

“Digital literacy is now a critical part of teaching and learning at school. All of our year 5 and 6 children have access to their own Chrome Book to work on at school. Now they will be able to take these Chrome Books home and continue their learning there. Children are naturally curious and passionate about their work. This scheme will allow them to carry on working and exploring at home, I expect this will have a very positive impact in that they will realise learning can happen anywhere and doesn’t stop at 3pm. While computers don’t replace books and pencils, a lot of work is done on devices and the kids will be able to share their learning with Mum, Dad and the family,” Dave Appleyard, Principal Rata Street School

Total operating and capital cost of the service over the last three years and next 10 years

Opex	2016/17 Actuals	2017/18 Actuals	2018/19 Forecast	2019/20 Draft Budget	2020/2021 Draft Budget
Community Projects and Relationships (CPR)	493	516	609	630	632
City Safety	639	576	577	603	593
Community Funding	1801	1766	1,478	1640	1,518
Hubs (net)	1,543	2,968**	3,345	3,469	3,430

Capex
City Safety	65	50	45
Community Funding*		4	457		457
Hubs	229	798***	183	222	195

* Community Panel Asset fund

**October 2017 opening of Koraunui Stokes Valley Community Hub (part year of costs only for this fin year) and July 1 2017 inclusion of Wainuiomata Hub in the division.

*** Included fit out of Koraunui

Adjustments that could be made to user charges and service levels to increase or decrease these by 5%

27. If funding was to be reduced, a reduction across all funding lines could occur, or a further review of other funding provided to community from across all of Council could be undertaken to look at cost savings.

28. If facility budgets reduced we would initially aim to reduce operating hours. This would reduce staff costs which are a significant portion of the division budget.

29. Some areas of capital work could be deferred however this could have a significant long term impact on budgets and is undesirable.

30. Additional funding or more targeted funding towards Council’s North East focus would be targeted at significantly enhancing kids’ access to learning opportunities – this is not about doing the job of schools and the Ministry of Education but rather working in collaboration with them, other agencies and the wider community to improve kids engagement, achievement and ambition. Our hub facilities are a significant centrally located community asset which could be the location for these opportunities should the funding be available.

31. As per the work of TAKA, creating access to learning in the home is where Council can assist to make a meaningful difference, change lives and over time reduce deprivation.

32. Increasing revenue from hire is deemed to have a negligible impact on overall budgets due to the likelihood of users finding alternative venues and particularly the Walter Nash Centre operating in a regional market where price points need to be balanced.

Current highlights or issues of significance to Council

33. Keeping to budgets and maintaining long term the level of service to community is a challenge. This ranges from staffing, capital expenditure and revenue, to high demand levels for facilities from community, all of which face pressures at different times.

34. Staff safety and wellbeing and Council reputation in dealing with the range of customers in our communities is increasingly challenging. We have had two particularly high profile examples of customer issues recently in Taita and Wainuiomata respectively.

35. Being a new division the integration of the community projects and hubs team still has some development to go. To date, our results have shown we have been highly successful in providing better quality and more fit for purpose facilities for our community and have increased the accessibility of a range of literacy, digital, arts and recreation offerings. Now the challenge for us is to really hone in and target those that need it most, being brave in reviewing our offerings to ensure that they align with the Children’s Commission research into what will have the greatest impact.

36. Neighbourhood Support NZ does not provide funding towards any local initiatives or resources, and all costs will need to be met by Council. These costs include community events such as Neighbours Day Aotearoa and resources to promote and distribute to the community and staff.

37. There is still continued pressure from the community for more CCTV coverage, but there is no capacity for any additional cameras. A review is underway to determine whether previous hot spots are still relevant, with a view to relocate cameras if the safety situation has changed in various sites/locations.

38.

Facility	Size (Total Floor)	Service Populat..	CAPEX	Collection Size	Visitation (or estimate)
Naenae Community Hub	1800-1900	15,000	6.9 + 800k fit out	~30,000	350,000
SWDC Waihinga Centre (2018)	1034m2	1,500 local + visitors (big market)	5.3m + unknown fit out (refit of town hall)	12,000	85,500
Stokes Valley (2017)	1130	9500	4.9 + 500k fit out	12,000	250,000
Bishopdale Library – Christchurch (2017)	795m2	5,000	4.1m + unknown fit out	20,000	219,000 per annum
Greerton Library – Tauranga (2016)	960m2	40,000	3.4m + $400k fit out)	60,000	113,000
Walter Nash* (2015) Library and Multi Use Space Only Unless Stated	1108m2	7,500	Cannot split out lib/multi-use costs from total facility	12,000	340,000 per annum
Toia – Otahuhu Library (not inclusive of pool or gym) (2015)	800m2	70,000	~$5m (estimate from staff as part of 30m project)	15,500	225,000
Devonport (2015)	~950m2	30,000	8m (including fit out)	35,000	288,000
Carterton Events Centre (2011)	1700m2 (including events centre and scouts hall)	8,200 + events market	6m + 400k fit out	30,000	Unknown
Upper Riccarton (2006)	1600m2	30,000	unknown	60,000 (For school and community)	800-1000 per day (292,000 – 365,000 annual)

Consultation

39. No consultation has been undertaken in preparing this report.

Legal Considerations

40. There are no legal considerations.

Financial Considerations

41. There are no financial considerations resulting from this report.

Other Considerations

42. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. Officers believe that this recommendation falls within the purpose of local government in that it provides a high level review of this Activity which compares performance against KPI’s and industry benchmarks. It does this in a way that is cost-effective because the cost of a full independent review would not justify the cost of the review.

Appendices

There are no appendices for this report.

Author: Melanie Laban

Divisional Manager, Community Projects and Relationships

Author: Mike Mercer

Divisional Manager Community Hubs

Approved By: Matt Reid

General Manager City and Community Services

69 02 May 2019

-Community Services Committee

02 April 2019

File: (19/411)

Report no: CSC2019/2/74

General Manager's Report

Purpose of Report

1. The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with a general update from the City and Community Services Group.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Committee notes the updates contained in the report.

Background

2. The Chair of the Community Services Committee and General Manager City and Community Services agreed that a report from Community Services should be provided at each meeting.

Discussion

3. An update on Community Services activity, opportunities and challenges is provided below.

Matters of Significance

Social Housing/Government Partnership

4. Last year we started a conversation with Government regarding a more meaningful partnership with regard to social housing in the Hutt. At the centre of this discussion was our ambition to empower tamaraki for brighter futures – more specifically working with government on our aligned priorities to end child poverty. How do we work together to ensure the tamariki of today’s tenants of the State, are renting or owning their own homes as adults in 15 plus years’ time.

5. One of our recommendations to Government was for the development of a ‘masterplan’ for social housing in Lower Hutt. Our ambition is for the masterplan to form the blueprint for key housing and ‘community building’ decisions across the City.

6. Essential to this masterplan is agreeing on some high level principles that will underpin all social housing developments, to ensure we place ‘brighter futures for tamariki’ at the centre of decision making. We see the agreement of these key principles as the first key step.

7. To start the work, we are holding a workshop in early May with invited senior leaders from Housing New Zealand, Health, Sport, Police, Iwi, Urban Plus Ltd, Education and private business. This is an important piece of work that can make a very meaningful difference for current and future generations.

Naenae Pool and Community Hub

8. The Naenae Pool was closed on 10 April. The Committee would be aware of the immediate priorities of officers with regard to: public communications, relocation of services, working through the implications of the closure with staff and ensuring the pool facility was secured. Whilst this work remains ongoing, the team of officers involved has done an excellent job.

9. Work on the progression of the Naenae Community Hub has been paused.

10. The majority of activity booked at Naenae has been transferred to other venues.

11. The loss of the pool is having, and will continue to have, a significant impact on the Naenae community including the retail precinct. Council teams are looking at how we can take a coordinated response to provide targeted increased activity in and around Hillary Court. The Naenae Library/Clubhouse teams are also exploring extending services, activities and opening hours. Options for a temporary gym are also being progressed.

12. With regard to the facility itself, officers have progressed the following key actions:

· Engaged consultants to progress a remediation proposal and cost estimate. This will provide both a cost estimate for remediation as well as an indication of the facilities’ useful life thereafter.

· Engaged experts to complete concepts and cost estimates for a new aquatic facility as well as an integrated aquatic facility with a community hub.

13. This work will likely be completed by mid-June 2019.

14. Ideally Council will meet late June to consider a report on the options for the pool. The objectives of a June meeting will be:

· To give officers a clear steer on a preferred option for ‘special consultation,’ including funding options.

· Approve a budget to progress design, consultation and a procurement process.

15. Note: the addition of a significant new capital budget and the ‘funding of’ will likely require a Long Term Plan amendment. The process and options with regard to this are being investigated with Auditors.

Regional Spaces and Places Plan

16. The Committee requested an update with regard to this work. Council has participated in the development of a strategic facilities plan for sport and recreational facilities in the wider Wellington region. The plan is intended to provide a road map and guideline for key decision-making in the region for sport and recreational facilities, including what should or should not be supported with funding. The work is being led through Sport Wellington and supported by Sport NZ, local Councils and Regional Sports Trusts.

17. A draft plan will ideally be presented to the regional Mayors’ group later this year before being presented to Councils for endorsement.

18. Officers are very supportive of the need for a regional plan to be adopted and supported by the entire region. Council is well placed with regard to its position within a regional plan, especially given its already adopted principles and developments as per the Long Term Integrated Community Facilities Plan.

Community Funding

19. The Committee is aware of Council’s new Community Funding Strategy.

20. This is the final year of contract/non contestable funding for Lower Hutt Citizens Advice Bureau, Petone Citizens Advice Bureau, Youth Inspire, Moera Community House, Petone Community House, Taita Pomare Community House, Kelson Community Centre, Alicetown Community Centre and Team Naenae. These organisations are well aware of the change and of Council’s new funding strategy. They all will have the opportunity to apply under new funding streams, and will need to demonstrate their alignment to the Strategy.

21. The Community Funding Strategy has the following funding streams:

· Kakano Fund: Kākano means seed, and this fund provides seed funding for new ideas that meet our vision in a give-it-a-go, safe-to-try environment. Opens 6 May, closes 27 May

· Mahia Atu Partnership Funding – provides a small number of organisations with funding and provides longer term funding and a partnership approach (three to five years). If an initiative is a strong fit to our vision, can demonstrate outstanding results and strong collaboration, they would apply here. Opens 6 May, closes 27 May

· Mahia Atu Community fund- provides one or two year funding for good community initiatives. Opens 24 June, closes 15 July

Significant Capital Projects, including Community Facilities Trust (CFT)

22. The Ricoh Sports Centre is now effectively complete and has been transferred to the management of Fraser Park Sportsville. As reported earlier, the capital budget for the CFT is under significant pressure although fundraising continues. The ground floor café, first floor bars, restaurants and meeting rooms are all operational and available for the public to hire and use. The changing rooms bring a new level of amenity to the participants using Fraser Park and will enable all member clubs to host local, regional, national and international tournaments in modern buildings that meet modern code requirements.

23. The Gymsports facility plans are progressing with Gymsports community actively fundraising and already pledging a significant contribution. Note: this project remains subject to normal Council conditions and approvals before actual funds are committed.

24. Refer to separate reports for this Committee and the City Development Committee for:

· Hutt Valley Tennis

· Te Whiti Park

· Petone Recreation Ground

· Bell Park – Ignite Sports

25. NOTE: given the closure of the Naenae Pool and very likely significant new capital funding being required for remediation or a new facility, Council is advised to add a further approval ‘condition’ to all of these Community Projects. That ‘condition’ being that any actual and final financial commitment to these projects is subject to a solution, including the funding of, for the Naenae Pool being formally approved by Council.

26. Such a condition does not need to prevent the ongoing planning, design, consenting, fundraising etc. of these proposals. Rather the ‘condition’ reflects that Naenae Pool needs to be Council’s first funding priority with regard to new Community Facilities (as referenced above and including the Naenae Community Hub, Wainuiomata Community Hub, Petone Centre and Wainuiomata Sportsville).

27. These matters will all need to be carefully agreed and discussed at the upcoming meeting of the Community Plan Committee. Other capital projects such as Cycleways and the Riverlink might also be considered in the same context.

Museums

Community Art

28. Summer in Dowse Square attracted over 600 local participants with positive responses to the programme of performances and activities that highlighted local talent.

29. Planning is currently underway on the Hutt Winter Festival with a new marketing and fundraising person in place and the programme is developing well.

Venues

30. We have had a successful summer season of weddings. Our venue hire bookings are steady. We are currently preparing for our winter season and planning for the summer 2019/20 season, including looking at mitigation around construction of the new Dowse Art Museum (the Dowse) entrance (refer below).

31. The Little Theatre has reopened following refurbishment and bookings are strong for the rest of the quarter.

Facilities

32. The Blumhardt Gallery refurbishment is completed and now has temperature and humidity control. The walls have been lined (half were previously concrete block), the floors have been changed from carpet to wood, and glass sliding doors have been installed to create a climate controlled environment.

33. We are currently working with the facilities team on a closed tender process for the Dowse Entrance project which is currently underway.

Engagement

34. We are currently working with Darcy Nicholas to engage whanau and iwi on the Nukutewhatewha revitalisation project. This is progressing well, and we are hoping to allocate research contracts over the next few months.

35. The Petone Settlers Museum programme is currently being reviewed and a new programme of displays, projects and exhibitions is being developed for the next financial year’s programme. We are currently recruiting for a paid internship that will contribute to Petone Settlers Museum community projects.

36. Our education programmes have continued to engage children throughout the local community with workshops and activities at the Dowse, Petone Settlers Museum and in schools.

Parks and Recreation

Pools + Fitness

37. Attendances over February and March at all pools are ahead of previous years with settled weather meaning no cancellations of event days or school swimming.

38. Our end of season dog swim at Wainuiomata Pool was popular and well attended with all dogs well behaved and enjoying the experience.

39. All our outdoor summer pools have been decommissioned for the season.

Recreation

40. At the conclusion of our summer play programme, we can report 2800 participants across 13 events. These popular events doubled as a data gathering exercise as we continue to understand how to get more Hutt kids playing. Council is considered to be at the vanguard of play amongst territorial authorities, because we have been applying a data driven approach to growing the amount of play sufficiency within our communities. We expect more opportunities to come our way through this work.

41. Our small group fitness classes continue to climb against the same month the previous year. Last month shows a 54% increase on attendance from the previous year.

42. Our build and play programme is booked out for the entirety of 2019 with a waiting list of four schools. This project is totally sustainable (as it is fully sponsored), and extremely popular with local educators who consider it to be a great example of ‘authentic learning’.

43. Our Iconic ‘Bike the Trail’ event is over for another year. This year was the 10^th anniversary of the event and we had 1430 participants. This is an improvement of 90 on the previous year, which makes it the second largest active event in the city. Participants have told us that this event improves their connection to the river and the Hutt Valley, makes them feel better and brings them closer to their family.

44. Our team wrapped a support programme for low decile schools around this year’s Weetbix Kiwikids Triathlon. This programme supported 277 Tamariki with bike training, pool passes, subsidised entry, bike repairs and more.

Healthy Families Lower Hutt

45. Healthy Families NZ – Hosted the national gathering of Healthy Families NZ leaders, including Chairs from all ten Healthy Families NZ locations at Walter Nash. The Director General of Health and his senior staff met with the Chairs during the hui to discuss Ministry of Health and Healthy Families NZ partnerships.

46. Workplace wellbeing – Healthy Families co-hosted a two day hui focused on workplace wellbeing across NZ. The hui was the first time central government (Ministry of Health and Health Promotion Agency), NGOs (Mental Health Foundation) and public health organisations have met to identify opportunities to leverage our collective skills, capacity and reach in order to make greater impact.

47. Smokefree –Andrea Curtis was appointed as our new Smokefree Activator. This role is funded by Hutt Valley DHB and aims to leverage Council’s and Healthy Families Lower Hutt’s approach to smoke free environments and scale the impact into Upper Hutt City Council.

48. Smokefree Outdoor Public Policy is being reviewed and will be back to the Community Services Committee and then full Council in July. The review will reflect what has worked well, what hasn’t worked and what the next steps towards a smoke free Lower Hutt might be.

49. Healthy Families is working in partnership with Wainuiomata Hub, Love Wainuiomata, Regional Public Health and Takiri Mai te Ata Regional Stop Smoking Service on an integrated action plan to support the designation of Queen Street being smoke free.

50. The Transport Division is leading the implementation of smoke free requirements in all pavement encroachment licences supported by Urban Plus Limited. We are supporting with information packs to educate on the new requirements.

51. Water – The high profile water fountain located outside the Ricoh Sports Centre has been installed and is already being heavily utilised.

52. Wellington Rugby Union has joined the Player of the Day initiative. This increases the number of pro-water clubs, removes over 5,000 unhealthy food sponsorship vouchers and creates over 5,000 new opportunities to use Council pools across the region.

53. Healthy City Design - Healthy Families Lower Hutt Strategic Leadership Group members submitted and orally presented to the City Development Committee and full Council on the Central City Transformation Plan (CCTP). Health partners reinforced that local government has a much greater ability to impact health and wellbeing of our people than the health sector could hope to have. Several cross-Council workshops have been held to further define the ‘Streets Alive’ framework and approach around healthy city design principles.

Parks

54. The outdoor basketball court in Stokes Valley has been installed with only landscaping and relocating of the toddlers play area still to be completed.

55. Improvements to Naenae Park drainage and turf layout have commenced with upgrading of the changing rooms to follow.

56. Installation of four water fountains and a skate surface have been approved by the Community Panels and will be installed over the next six months.

57. The Eastbourne skate ramp has now been completed with landscaping around the site now being undertaken.

58. A review of reserve land has commenced in Wainuiomata.

59. The sports ground maintenance contract is due for renewal in June. This is likely to result in an increase in contract costs due to growth in scope and quality of provision over recent years.

60. The Winter change-over of sportsgrounds is currently in full swing as is winter planting of our reserves.

61. Bruce Hodgins is leading work on updating the Biodiversity Work Plan within the Environmental Strategy with assistance from our Parks team. Stakeholder meetings will take place over the next six weeks.

62. Work on strengthening the Days Bay Wharf has commenced.

Libraries

63. Hutt City Libraries is embarking on a strategy project to develop our strategic and work plans. We are using a co-design approach, working with members of our community to gain deep insights into their preferences, behaviours and aspirations. This will enable us to design and offer relevant and meaningful services, spaces, activities and collections now and into the future.

64. In response to consistently positive feedback from customers, all community libraries are continuing with 9.30am (rather than 10.00am) opening Monday-Thursday, utilising existing staffing resource levels. A staff survey was undertaken in April, to ensure the initiative is working well for staff and customers alike. Some internal processes will be further refined as a result.

65. Hutt City Libraries team is coordinating community engagement for a redevelopment of the Petone Library and Heritage and Community Centre. We are working closely with the Petone Community Board, Council Communications and Marketing team, and Information Services staff, and have used the ‘Have your Say’ platform to facilitate online community engagement. Hard copy surveys have also been available, and weekend workshops held onsite at the Petone Library and Heritage and Community Centre. The engagement period closes 15 April 2019. Results will then be presented to Council in May for their consideration of community feedback to proposed options for the redevelopment.

66. Hutt City Libraries has been awarded InternetNZ funding for two initiatives: ‘Stepping Out to Grow Stepping UP’ to fund additional classes of Stepping UP across the City; and ‘Building Digital Well-Being: A Community Pilot in Hutt City’ to provide support and internet connectivity to tamariki, rangatahi, their parents and their whānau, and to provide workshops where people can develop their knowledge, and skills on how to stay safe online. We will be working with Digitial Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) on this project.

67. Wellington City Libraries closed its Central Library on 19 March 2019 due to engineering advice which identified structural vulnerabilities. We are working closely with the Wellington City Libraries team to provide some Hutt City Library services to affected Wellington City residents (ie free member-ship, and loan of our physical collections with overdues/rental charges applied as required). These services have been enabled in April.

Community Hubs, Projects and Relationships

68. Business as usual continues at the hubs over the first quarter. A large variety and number of programmes and services continue to be offered.

69. With Clubhouse now operating from Walter Nash Centre and Naenae Hub to incorporate Naenae Clubhouse in the future, we are actively investigating the digital offering from Wainuiomata and Koraunui Hubs. First priority is Wainuiomata, where we are currently recruiting for a role which will co-design with community, a skills-based structured learning programme focusing on STEMM and targeted at rangatahi within our Empowering Tamariki framework. This is closely linked/supported with other divisions of Council.

70. At nine months through the financial year the hubs collectively have had over a million visits. Our internal customer satisfaction survey indicates an average ‘Overall Satisfaction’ of 95% across all three current hubs. Financials are tracking well YTD and forecast to be within 1.5% variation to budget.

71. A big focus for several staff is on how to maximise the commercial opportunities that our hub facilities present. This is a long term activity, however we hope to see some traction in this space over the coming two years.

72. It is extremely pleasing to see Dowse collections being showcased in hub facilities over this period. Our thanks go to Karl, Gerda and the team.

73. A Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation on the Walter Nash Centre will be undertaken over the next 12 months. After this, we will replicate it at Koraunui Stokes Valley Hub.

City Safety

CCTV

· All existing cameras are operational, with a new camera installed on the Naenae Pool and the Wainuiomata camera reinstalled.

· Search and download requests continue to increase, especially via OIA Requests.

· The Percy’s Reserve camera has proven to be a valuable asset, with at least three people being identified and apprehended.

Safe City Ambassadors

· A focus on engaging with Moera businesses to support Police who are considering developing a business network, in response to safety concerns in the community.

· Requests for Safe City Ambassadors to be involved/have a presence at various Council events has increased.

· Supporting the Walter Nash and newly established Wainuiomata Basketball leagues.

· Increased presence in areas of concern determined by Police information and Council data, including: Percy’s Reserve, Wainuiomata, Jackson St, Community Centre functions and Petone foreshore.

· Regular patrols of Fraser Park Sportsville.

74. Empowering tamariki

Te Awakairangi Access Trust – Rata Street School ‘Bridging the digital divide’

· Datacom have donated 150 chargers to Rata Street School so that tamariki can take their Chromebooks home over the school holidays.

· First Chromebook Club was held and we had 52 students attend at lunch. The session was run by our library staff, thank you to Shane and Lillian.

Symphony in the Hutt – Community Concert

· All the funds now raised and event confirmed. Another outstanding show for our Hutt Valley community, securing sponsorship from KPMG, Datacom, Vocus communications and Council and funding from Hutt Mana Trust and Pelorus Trust.

· Streamline have advised they will work alongside tamariki from Rata Street School to do a visual digital piece to be played on the big screen at ‘Symphony in the Hutt.’

Access

· Ride Holidays (Karl Woolcott) had a very successful fundraiser event which raised funds to purchase bikes for Naenae Primary. They will be receiving 30 brand new bikes.

75. Youth Council

· Youth Council Chair is now Sophia Nem and Deputy Chair is Bryana Jenson

· Youth Council members presented at three committee meetings in March: Policy and Regulatory Committee regarding waste minimization, City Development Committee regarding the CBD transformation plan, and the Community Services Committee.

· Youth Council was invited to attend the Refuse Collection and Disposal Bylaw workshop with elected members, and four members attended. The Youth Council Chair was invited to sit around the table and engage in discussion regarding the impacts for youth of the proposed bylaws.

· Some members are undertaking a youth development Toastmasters course to provide development in public speaking and presentations.

Other Considerations

76. In making this recommendation, officers have given careful consideration to the purpose of local government in section 10 of the Local Government Act 2002. Officers believe that this recommendation falls within the purpose of local government.

Appendices

There are no appendices for this report.

Author: Melanie Laban

Divisional Manager, Community Projects and Relationships

Author: Marcus Sherwood

Divisional Manager, Leisure Active

Author: Mike Mercer

Divisional Manager Community Hubs

Author: Karl Chitham

Museums Director

Author: Kat Cuttriss

Divisional Manager Libraries

Approved By: Matt Reid

General Manager City and Community Services

[1] This excludes sites that are considered high profile, significant on a city-wide basis due to their size and location, or where the site crosses ward or community boundaries.

[2] The Operational Guide for Urban Forest Plan is available from Council’s Parks and Gardens Division.

Cr L Bridson	Cr J Briggs
Cr S Edwards	Cr M Lulich
Cr G McDonald (Deputy Chair)	Cr C Milne
Cr L Sutton

Mayor W R Wallace (Ex Officio)