Details of Rotorua’s newly announced community hub have been shared as the district’s council works to improve safety after two bashings near bus stops and amid concerns about crime in the CBD.

Rotorua Lakes Council has been working with the police on a Community Safety Plan, which included a goal to halve violent crime and antisocial behaviour in the CBD by 2026.

Community and district development group manager Jean-Paul Gaston updated elected members on the plan’s progress at a meeting on Wednesday, including details about the inner-city hub announced last month after two attacks on teens in the CBD.

Gaston told the meeting the key to the hub was that it would be under constant review.

Economic development manager Julie-May Ellingson said a two-year lease had been signed for the hub at 1161 Hinemoa St, near the Tūtānekai St intersection.

The space was previously used for retail and is near where a building with a similar purpose was knocked down in 2015 as part of the City Focus redevelopment.

Aims for the hub included building confidence in inner-city safety; improving safety; decreasing anti-social behaviour and crime; and improving the visibility of police, the council’s Safe City Guardians and Māori wardens.

They would work in the hub alongside an inner-city operations manager, community support officer and Neighbourhood Support volunteers. It would open six days a week.

She said the space chosen was the best option in terms of cost, visibility and availability.

In a response to Local Democracy Reporting, Gaston said fit-out of the space would begin in October, and the hub was expected to be operational by mid-November.

He said it had negotiated a fixed rental of $26,500 per annum, including rates and insurance.

“Rentals of the other premises considered were higher and ranged from $30,000-35,000 per annum.”

Other proposals under the plan were to “refresh” the council’s Safe City Guardians uniform and increase their numbers, ensure guardians were warranted to uphold council bylaws, increase CCTV operators for the council’s 300 cameras and recruit a team leader to manage safety on buses and around bus stops.

The Inner-City Community Hub is expected to be open by mid-November. Photo / Laura Smith.

Bus stop safety was in the spotlight recently after the two teen bashings near a central city bus stop within a week of each other.

At the time, mayor Tania Tapsell said she was urging the Government to give Rotorua more police resources, while police said they were working with partners to curb youth offending in the Rotorua CBD.

Gaston said at last week’s meeting Tapsell was speaking monthly with Rotorua area commander Herby Ngawhika and talking directly with police minister Ginny Andersen about police resourcing levels.

Mihikore Owen, director of community safety, told the meeting the council had secured $86,000 per year for the next 10 years in funding for safety at bus stops and on bus routes from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which operates the bus network.

Other Community Safety Plan actions were to define the role, training, selection, supervision, and brand for the Safe City Guardians; to review and determine a future complementary deployment model (guardians and private security); to define a deployment and information-sharing model between police and council staff; and to review community safety camera monitoring, technology and coverage.

It would also engage with inner-city businesses on the 2023-24 plan and engage an all-Government group to undertake initiatives to reduce offending.

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