​New ideas for cottage in Rawinia Rangi Reserve

Over the last few months, contractors have been sprucing up the small cottage at the back of Ōpōtiki’s new Rawinia Rangi Reserve. With the works complete, Council needs to make decisions on the best use of the building and is keen to hear thoughts and feedback from the community.

Deputy Mayor Shona Browne is a member of Ōpōtiki District Council’s Property Advisory Group. She said that the Group had been discussing options and was keen to get some informal input from the wider community.

“With the works done on the small cottage, it will be a great opportunity to use that space again – it hasn’t been used for many years.

“What we want to do is find a way forward that maximises community use and minimises community costs. We see a couple of main ways to do that – either lease the space long term to one or two community groups or hire it out for community use.

“We already have both of these types of arrangements in place for council buildings. For example, people can hire the pavilions for a fee and a deposit. And we also lease several buildings out to long term tenants so they can have their own space like the showground clubrooms or the old Plunket buildings. There might be another option that other people can think of too,” Ms Browne said.

Councillors on the Property Advisory Group would be getting feedback from all sorts of places, including a chance to vote and give ideas on Facebook.

“It is a beautiful community space down at Rawinia Rangi Reserve and we are so pleased to have that cottage back in a useable condition again. We look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts to feed into the decision on its future,” Ms Browne said.

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