Critics of Whakatāne District Council spending have been scathing of the $450,000 of improvements planned for Mitchell Park, but Whakatāne Sunday Market owners say the benefits will far outweigh the cost.

Naomi Biddle and Karl Wheeler, who took over running the market in 2020, estimate that since the market was established in 2011 the council had received around $90,000 in rent.

Due to increases in rent, $45,000 of that has been in the past four years since they took it over.

With the rate they are currently paying, they calculated their rent would pay for the improvements within 25 years.

“That 25 years could be chopped in half if other events used that space - night markets, movie nights, there’s so much potential in that space,” Ms Biddle said.

Since its return to Mitchell Park after Covid-19 saw the Whakatāne War Memorial Centre carpark used as a testing site, the market had gone from strength to strength, she said.

Visitors liked having it in the heart of the central business district and nearby businesses benefited from the extra foot traffic, she said.

"There’s businesses that open their doors on a Sunday now because they get benefits from the market being there,” Ms Biddle said.

“Our focus has always been on the community and giving back." Ms Biddle said.

She said the market made around $1.5 million a year for stallholders, “a big chunk” of whom were Whakatāne district ratepayers.

“Over 1000 people come to the market every Sunday. That doubles in the summer. There’s about $28,000 to $30,000 a week that is being made.”

Stallholders included full-time workers earning a little extra on the weekend, small businesses promoting themselves and senior citizens selling handmade crafts.

“We have single mums who bundle their kids up at 6am to come to the market to keep themselves above the breadline, people with disabilities who can’t do 40 hours a week but still want to contribute.

“We have great-grandparents, having to supplement their superannuation to pay their rates, people who have had a terminal illness and coming to the markets to help pay for their medical costs.”

The market also provided free stalls for schools and community groups and donated money to charitable organisations.

At least three stallholders who started at the market now rented shops in the township, such as Drip Desserts, L’Atelier and Prana Massage, she said.

“There’s so many little gold nuggets that we’ve created over the past four years that when you put them together it’s huge.”

Planned improvements to Mitchell Park include an accessible toilet, storage facility, water tap, power outlets, improved lighting, seating, drainage paths and new signs.

The market owners say they have no intention of moving back to the Rex Morpeth Recreation Hub if a planned shared use space is created there, as one commentator has said they would.

"Mitchell Park was where the market had its origins. We're here to stay.”

Ms Biddle said the market had no shortage of obstacles, but the biggest at the moment was that Mitchell Park didn’t have a toilet.

"It’s especially difficult for our most vulnerable, like our elderly and our younger generation, both as stallholders and as customers who visited.”

The Boon Street toilets were a long way for some of the older or disabled stallholders who used walkers or walking sticks.

The toilets could be unsafe and she said she'd heard of a teenage daughter of a stall holder being asked for “sexual favours” there.

Human excrement was often found on the floor, she said.

“Some of our elderly, when there’s been excrement on the ground, it has gotten on their walkers and sticks.”

Building good disabled access toilets would unlock greater possibilities for the park.

The council approved the park upgrade earlier this month, but councillors were split on the vote.

At the time, Mayor Victor Luca and councillors Andrew Iles and Gavin Dennis said the council should not be spending money on this project while it was struggling to pay for basic infrastructure and having to increase rates.

Deputy Mayor Lesley Immink and councillor Toni Boynton felt it was important to improve accessibility for the elderly and people with small children and were supported by the remaining councillors.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.