Rotorua council publicly notifies Pūwhakamua consent application amid investigation
What the proposed new site at Waikite Valley will look like.
Photo:
Supplied / LDR
The public will have a say on a controversial plan to move a prisoner reintegration facility to a rural Rotorua valley.
Rotorua Lakes Council has publicly notified a resource consent application for Pūwhakamua to operate in Waikite.
A notice in the Rotorua Daily Post said submissions would close at 5pm on 25 June.
It comes as the council investigates the existing Pūwhakamua facility, based near Rotorua Airport, after issuing, then cancelling, a notice ordering it to cease operations because of consent matters.
Pūwhakamua is a tikanga Māori live-in reintegration service supporting men on parole to return and readapt into the community.
It was the brainchild of reformed drug lord Billy Macfarlane, who works as general manager, and is run by Tikanga Aroro Charitable Trust, with a contract from the Department of Corrections.
Pūwhakamua has been operating on the leased site since 2018 and Corrections has funded it at least $4.6 million since November 2022.
The trust aimed to develop a new site on nearby Māori land behind Rotokawa Baths, but landowners successfully sought an injunction through the Māori Land Court, meaning it had to find another new home.
The trust applied for resource consent in October to relocate to Waikite, about 40km south of Rotorua.
It had requested limited notification be carried out for immediate neighbours and that submissions be invited through a formal process.
Community members told councillors last year they opposed the facility relocation, fearing the rural setting increased safety and security risks. They called for full public notification, allowing wider submissions.
The Rotorua Rural Community Board was advised in a meeting on Tuesday the application would be publicly notified.
About 80 people attended a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting in November, most of them for a petition opposing a resource consent application.
Photo:
LDR / Laura Smith
The trust's application said the rural environment meant a "focus on cultural values can be fostered away from the distractions of an urban environment".
"Full support and care are provided through the programme via on-site resident staff and external agencies. Residents commit to pursuing lasting change through support with daily life tasks, upskilling programmes, vocational education, personal development and employment."
The trust hit consent issues at its current site this year.
On 5 March, the council sent an abatement notice ordering the "unconsented" facility to cease operations and take steps to gain consent.
Rehabilitation centres could be considered community housing under the District Plan, but must only have up to eight residents, whose movements could not be legally restricted - including by parole conditions.
Pūwhakamua was hosting 14 parolees in February when the council inspected after neighbours raised concerns.
The abatement notice was cancelled on 24 March.
Council destination development group manager Jean-Paul Gaston told Local Democracy Reporting an investigation into activities on the site was ongoing.
He declined to comment further, saying the council did not intend to conduct the investigation through the media.
Billy Macfarlane, founder of Rotorua based organisation Pūwhakamua.
Photo:
LDR / Aleyna Martinez
Trust chairman Doug Macredie said the abatement notice was a "non-event based on incorrect information" and was quickly cancelled.
"That said, we've taken the opportunity to review our land use in accordance with tikanga, and will continue in humility and thankfulness."
Macredie said the Waikite Valley consent notification was for the council to decide.
"We are progressing with the full support of our network and observing improved accuracy of information resulting in greater public support."
He previously said no one who could not be safely managed in the community could live at Pūwhakamua and everyone referred was assessed while still in custody.
Active gang members were not considered, community safety was the "No 1 priority" and Pūwhakamua staff were on-site at all times.
A Corrections spokesperson said finding safe accommodation for people lawfully required to be released from prison was one of its "most significant challenges".
"Without supported accommodation, they could be homeless and living on the streets or in cars. This would present an unacceptable safety risk to communities."
According to Corrections statements, the number of men living on site at Pūwhakamua had fluctuated from eight when the notice was cancelled to nine about two weeks ago and six as of Wednesday.
Eight other participants in the programme lived off-site.
Corrections' communities, partnerships and pathways deputy chief executive Sean Mason told Local Democracy Reporting last month that it met with trust and council after the abatement notice.
He understood the trust sought independent advice to ensure Pūwhakamua was compliant and was keeping Corrections informed.
The department had developed a contingency plan in place to safely house the residents if they had needed to leave Pūwhakamua.
Mason said reintegration services were important in reducing the risk of reoffending.
A communication from the council to the trust, sent to Local Democracy Reporting by Corrections, said the abatement notice was cancelled to allow time for an independent planning consultant to consider an assessment undertaken on behalf of the trust.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
Quinton Rihari loses Dunedin flat after threatening neighbours
By Catherine Hutton, Open Justice reporter of Photo: 123rf A man who threw plastic chairs at his frightened neighbours before letting off a gas bottle in the shared hallway and shouting "Boom, boom, you can all die", has lost his Salvation Army flat. Quinton Rihari couldn't be reached for the Tenancy Tribunal's hearing, where the Salvation Army sought to terminate the tenancy on his central Dunedin flat, saying he'd threatened to assault other tenants in the complex. According to the tribunal's recently released decision, Rihari received written warnings about his behaviour at his Thomas Burns Street flat on three occasions. The first was on 27 December last year, when he broke a painting in the corridor during a fight outside his room. It began at 3.30am and lasted for an hour and a half. Then, in February, he verbally abused tenants when they asked him to turn his music down. Two months later, on 14 April, the Salvation Army says Rihari became angry and threw plastic chairs off a shared balcony, frightening other tenants. After returning to his room, Rihari let off a 9kg LPG bottle in the hallway, yelling, "Boom, boom, you can all die". Police were called and took Rihari away, only for him to return and begin yelling at the other tenants, calling them "narks". Later that day, he told another tenant he was going to "punch her head in". Again, police were called and Rihari was taken away. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, the tribunal can terminate a tenancy if it's satisfied a tenant has engaged in antisocial behaviour on three separate occasions during a 90-day period and received written notice on each occasion. Antisocial behaviour includes harassment or any act (whether intentional or not) that reasonably causes significant alarm, distress or nuisance. The decision found that while Rihari received separate notices for each incident, the three incidents spanned 108 days, outside the 90-day period. Despite this, the tribunal found Rihari had threatened to harm his neighbours over the gas cylinder incident and threatened to assault another neighbour. As a result, it agreed to terminate Rihari's tenancy. When the Salvation Army was approached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, its media officer Kai Sanders said no one was available for comment, adding this wasn't something the organisation would usually comment on because of its strict rules around privacy. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald .
RNZ News
8 hours ago
- RNZ News
Lawyer struck off after taking $200k of client funds to escape abusive relationship
By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter of The woman said she lived in constant fear of her husband. Photo: 123RF A lawyer who says she feared for her life at the hands of an abusive husband took at least $200,000 from her clients, partly to escape the relationship. "I understand how on the face this looks like a simple story of a lawyer who misused client funds," she told a disciplinary tribunal today, "but, this is a story of a long shadow of domestic violence". The woman, who has name suppression, said she and her children were in a state of survival for seven years. She said they lived in constant fear of her husband and often had to barricade themselves in a bedroom so he wouldn't hurt them. "The term survival mode does not do justice to the psychological toll," she said. "I genuinely believe we would have ended up as a news headline for a murder suicide." Despite the abuse, the woman continued to operate a successful legal practice, but began dipping into her firm's trust account so she could move cities to escape her husband. Today, the woman told the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal that taking money from the account, which is used to hold client funds, began as an error. But, she then started taking more in the belief she could repay it. The woman told the tribunal that she accepted she would be struck off for taking the money, some of which she has already repaid, and realises now that she should have shut her firm down when she couldn't cope. "But I loved being a lawyer. "In all the darkness, it was the one thing I was holding onto that made me feel like me." She knew it was wrong Milan Djurich, counsel for the Standards Committee laying charges against the woman on behalf of the New Zealand Law Society, told the tribunal that the woman knew what she was doing was wrong. "It was a high level of theft and a breach of professional standards," he said. According to the charges against the woman, it was one of her clients who contacted the Law Society in 2023, concerned about the lack of contact from the woman after they'd paid a significant deposit. Investigators estimated that there was a shortfall of at least $200,000 in the trust account before taking control of it in December 2023. It was found the woman transferred money out of the trust account and spent it on things like insurance, gym fees, relocation costs, school fees and books and payments on a deposit for a property she'd purchased. There were also several large transfers into her personal accounts, but it's unclear exactly what that money was spent on. The woman's lawyer, Stewart Sluis, said his client didn't have access to the trust account any longer as the Law Society took it over, and she now couldn't determine exactly how much she took, but the Standards Committee accepted that the shortfall was at least $203,000. The woman, who handed in her practising certificate voluntarily, accepted she would be struck from the roll of barristers and solicitors. The woman has recently won a relationship property settlement in the Family Court against her ex-husband. She now plans to use the proceeds to pay the rest of the money she took from her clients. While the woman was granted name suppression, she asked the tribunal to include the context of why she took the money in its written decision. Because the Family Court is strictly suppressed, if she had lost name suppression, the wider context about her husband could not have been referenced by the tribunal, nor reported by NZME. "This is my attempt to tell my side of the story, one shaped by domestic violence and a mental state shattered by fear," she said. "I hope that sharing this story may help other women in the future." The tribunal ordered that the woman be struck off and that she pay legal costs as well as repay the money that was taken from her clients. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald . If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
RNZ News
10 hours ago
- RNZ News
Man charged with murder after injured victim dies in hospital
Police have launched a homicide investigation. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver A 21-year-old man has been charged with murder, after a man seriously injured in Tokoroa last week died in hospital. Police were called to an Abercorn Place address about 4:15am last Tuesday, after reports a man had been injured by a male known to him outside his house. The victim was taken to Waikato Hospital in critical condition, but has since died. Taupo area investigations manager Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Yardley said a homicide investigation had been launched, and a man has been charged with murder. The charged man will appear in the High Court at Rotorua later this month. Yardley said police were still working to establish the full sequence of events that led to the man's death. "We'd like to hear from anyone who witnessed anything, or has any information that might help our investigation. "We'd also like to see any dashcam or CCTV footage anyone may have from around the time in question." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
