The holiday park was established in 2018.
Te Kuiti Holiday Park is to close – and it will save Waitomo District Council $100 a day.
Mayor John Robertson proposed the closure of the $20 a night Te Kumi Road Park in his monthly mayoral report following a review of district holiday parks discussed at a council workshop earlier in the month.
Robertson tabled the workshop report at Tuesday’s meeting after posting his thoughts on closure on social media. The council arrived at an almost unanimous decision to close the park.
Councillors Janene New and Gavin Todd sent apologies for the meeting and councillor and mayoral hopeful Janette Osborne voted against the motion.
“The figures show that this park is costing ratepayers $700 per week, probably more, to keep open,” Robertson said.
He said the park had cost about $800,000 to establish in 2018 with $200,000 funding from central government and $10,000 from the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association.
“This have been costing ratepayers $30,000 to $40,000 per year,” he said.
While the park is unmanned, and accessed via a swipe card, it still requires daily cleaning, security, maintenance, power, water and refuse collection.
Income was around $10,000 per year, Robertson said.
Osborne said it was of procedural concern that there was no paper on the proposed closure the holiday park in the meeting pack.
“Exactly one week after the workshop on May 20 the papers for this meeting were published which do not include a public paper on the holiday parks but do contain the intention within the mayor’s report of raising a resolution to close the Te Kuiti Holiday Park,” Osborne said.
“This paper has been written before Waitomo District Council had made public the intention to close the holiday park – and before any feedback to an official Waitomo District Council notification had been received. This does not sit easy with me – there is no paper publicly available without request.
“There should be a paper come back to a council meeting which also includes what the risks are if the holiday park is to be closed. Who are the local people relying on these facilities and what will happen to them – where will they go?”
Osborne said there had been no attempts to improve the financial situation.
Deputy mayor Allan Goddard said it was not the role of the council to provide showers for the community.
“I have lived here all of my life, and I have never known our town to be a holiday destination,” said councillor Eady Manawaiti.
“I have never seen it promoted as a holiday destination.”
“We really need to look out for the good of the ratepayers,” added councillor Dan Tasker.
Robertson’s motion included shifting Te Kūiti Holiday Park’s ablution block to Marokopa Holiday Park for which the council is seeking a tenant to lease the park to.
