Latest News
This page has the content from the latest media releases or news issued by Porirua City Council.
For previous media releases in pdf format, please refer to the Media Releases page.
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27 August 2010
PORIRUA VOLUNTEER ORGANISATIONS RECOGNISED IN AWARDS
Community organisations in Porirua City were recognised for their services to the community at an awards ceremony at Pataka this week.
Mana Recovery (formerly Mana Community Enterprises), Titahi Bay Lions Club, Strong Pacific Families, Speld Mana and Porirua Vikings Rugby League Club won in their respective categories. Mana Recovery was also the Porirua Supreme Winner.
Monday night’s ceremony was officiated over by Mayor Jenny Brash.
“I was very pleased to be able to say a huge thank you to not only these organisations but to all the organisations that entered the Awards and to acknowledge the important role their volunteers do to improve the quality of life in our city,” Mayor Brash said.
“Porirua has a strong community sector with a large number of community groups. Volunteers give of their time, their skills and their energy for the good of others without expecting anything in return. Awards like these allow us to celebrate that service and to show our appreciation.”
The groups were finalist in the following categories:
- Health & Wellbeing – Strong Pacific Families
- Heritage & Environment – Mana Community Enterprises
- Education/Child Youth Development – Speld Mana (Inc)
- Sport & Leisure – Porirua Vikings Rugby League Club
- Arts & Culture – Titahi Bay Lions Club
- Porirua Supreme Winner - Mana Community Enterprises
MANA RECOVERY COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES
Mana Recovery (formerly Mana Community Enterprises) was established in 1996. They are a non-profit community organisation providing social and employment outcomes for people with mental health needs in the Porirua and Wellington region.
Their activities are centred on environmental sustainability.
After identifying that there was great difficulty for the people that they supported (their trainees) to move beyond their programmes into paid employment, Mana Recovery developed a range of small business initiatives in partnerships with the Porirua City Council and local businesses focused around sustainability. The most recognized of these would be their work, in partnership with the Council, at Trash Palace. Trash Palace has international acclaim as a successful model of resource recovery others want to replicate. It is undergoing a major transformation and next month, visitors will be able to enjoy a far superior operation at the Broken Hill Road facility.
Through these initiatives, Mana Recovery offer services that assist their trainees to develop socially, gain employment skills and work ethics, building confidence and the opportunity to rehabilitate back into the community.
In the past year:
- Mana Recovery has supported 90 trainees
- 56 have found employment of which 28 started as trainees
- Over 150 tonnes of material have been diverted from the landfill
Mana Recovery's ability to nurture and support innovative thinking and behaviour within their organisation has created a great network of dedicated people who are thinking outside the box and are helping them to achieve their environmental and social objectives.
STRONG PACIFIC FAMILIES
The Porirua Strong Pacific Families initiative was established in 2005 as a response to the Government's Te Rito Report on Family Violence Prevention Strategy.
Porirua Strong Pacific Families is an annual event. It began with a focus on minimising violence within Pacific families and communities. It is a week full of action to help support Pacific families to make positive behavioural changes within families. Activities include inter-active workshops for all members of the community regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.
Porirua Strong Pacific Families' volunteers are all in paid fulltime employment. They are a devoted team of passionate people committed to the vision of the organisation.
The Porirua Strong Pacific Families project was used as a case study to highlight as one of the successes in Porirua's World Health Organisation International Safe Community Application.
SPELD MANA
Speld Mana is a group of unsung heroes who work quietly and steadily in the background. They provide Speld lessons and support people who learn differently.
Once a student is referred by a school, parent etc, a Speld assessment is done to identify learning needs. A report shows what gaps need filling and what learning support is required.
Speld Tutors are dedicated and contribute whenever and wherever there is a need.
Their service has been of great benefit to the community as many schools are opening their doors to Speld Mana tutors. They can meet the students' curriculum needs and work alongside schools and families.
PORIRUA VIKINGS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB
Porirua Vikings Rugby League Club is an incorporated sports club concentrating on the sport of rugby league. However, they are also involved in many community projects like:
Drive Safe-Road Safety Ambassador Role with Porirua City Council
Learn to Drive in partnership with Porirua Partners
Violence Is Not Our Fame with facilitator Te Roopu Awhina
Ascot Park cleaning in partnership with Porirua City Council.
The Porirua Vikings is the biggest rugby league club in the Wellington region with over 400 registered juniors/schoolboys spread over 21 teams. They have 81 volunteers in their amateur club, mainly parents who are involved in managing, coaching, administration and providing transport. Some of these volunteers with the required coaching and managing certificates are also engaged in coaching and managing Wellington representative teams.
Porirua Vikings has maintained a steadfast policy of not charging juniors/schoolboys any annual subscription to play for their club as most parents struggle financially to make ends meets.
TITAHI BAY LIONS CLUB
Member of the Titahi Bay Lions Club have put in many volunteer hours in support of our community. They are involved in many events such as managing the Saturday morning market in Porirua of which 90% of the income they receive is given back to the community. They provide financial support for local groups and help young athletes and donate to charities.
The club is also involved in local events such as Festival of the Elements and Creekfest and they distribute food to the local community.
19 August 2010
BOARD MEMBERS APPOINTED FOR PCC OPERATIONS AND FACILITIES
Porirua City Council has appointed external members on two Management Boards to oversee the Council's Cultural and Leisure Facilities and its Works Operations.
Roger Miller (Chair) and Chris Kirk-Burnnand have been appointed to the Management Board for Cultural and Leisure Facilities while Ian Hay will Chair the Management Board for the Asset Management and Operations (AMO) group's works operations.
Porirua Mayor Jenny Brash says Council requested a review of the governance structures for Cultural and Leisure Facilities and for Works Operations last year.
"This came out of the Services and Costs Review where Council wanted to find ways to save money and provide better services. I am extremely pleased that we have appointees of the calibre of Roger, Chris and Ian. I am confident they will add value to the running of these business groups to improve service delivery and also to implement opportunities to maximise commercial revenue streams."
Council Chief Executive Roger Blakeley says there are a number of advantages of the Management Boards.
"The Boards will provide the overview to ensure the units are business focused and providing benchmarked cost-effective service delivery. This will lead to the creation of business disciplines and value-added options in addition to ensuring more effective current services."
Dr Blakeley says the new governance model will support the innovation needed to continually improve and embrace new and better work practices with no significant cost overheads.
The Works Operations business includes water, wastewater and stormwater services, streetworks, litter, parks and reserves and gardens.
The Cultural and Leisure Facilities include Te Rauparaha Arena (including Arena Fitness Gym, Arena Aquatic Centre), Cannons Creek Pool, the Library, Pataka Museum of Arts and Cultures and the "Spine Complex" and Gear Homestead.
Roger Miller is the Managing Partner of Maude & Miller with established offices in Porirua since 1990. He specializes in commercial and trust law and acts as general counsel for a number of national and international corporate clients. In 2005 he was named Wellingtonian of the Year in the Business Category. He is passionate about the arts, reflected in Maude & Miller being the principal sponsor of Pataka.
Chris Kirk-Burnnand is a successful businessman who started Autostop Group in 1968 and developed it into a property owning company. He lives in the city and has worked with the Council for many years on economic development. He has extensive voluntary governance experience on various organisations including National President of the Motor Trade Association, President of Johnsonville Lions Club, Chair of the Porirua Community Appeal Trust which raised over $1.35 million towards the Porirua Aquatic Centre and Pataka, Chair of Life Educations Trust, Chair of Whitireia Community Polytechnic and Chair of Johnsonville Youth Grants Trust. In 2004 he became a Member of the New Zealand Order of merit for Community Service.
Joining Mr Miller and Mr Kirk-Burnnand on this Management Board will be PCC General Manager of Community Services Darcy Nicholas, General Manager of Strategy and Planning Moira Lawler and General Manager of Corporate Services Euan Dempsey.
This Board will undertake an operational review of the services provided at the Arena and Pataka, agree deliverable outcomes and investigate and implement ways to maximise commercial revenue.
"The Board is a very important opportunity to continue to develop the effectiveness of our leisure and cultural facilities and the contribution they make to our community," says Mayor Jenny Brash.
Mr Hay, a Chartered Accountant and experienced director and company secretary, has extensive experience at governance and senior management level in a number of industries. His strengths lie in strategic planning, financial and risk management, international marketing, change management, team leadership and business focus with a community perspective.
He will be joined on the Board by PCC Asset Management and Operations General Manager Peter Bailey and PCC Corporate Services General Manager Euan Dempsey.
Both Management Boards will report to the Council's Chief Executive. There will be a Statement of Intent agreed between each Board and Council before the start of each year, and the Boards will report on progress against Key Performance Indicators as part of the Council's normal quarterly and annual reporting to the public. The Boards will be subject to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act in the same way as Council.
5 August 2010
PCC gets 100 percent for resource consent processing
The latest figures from the Porirua City Council reveal it has little to fear from new legislation penalising councils for late processing of resource consents.
The Council processed 100 per cent of the 224 resource consent applications it received on time, in the financial year to June 31, 2010.
From August 2, a minimum one per cent discount must be given for each day a resource consent is processed beyond the 20-working day statutory requirement, up to a maximum of 50 per cent.
The Porirua City Council has also performed highly in building consent processing, achieving 99.6 per cent compliance over the same period for the 802 building consents that it granted.
This comes as the number of consent applications it receives holds strong.
“The month of May saw the largest number of building consents that we’ve processed for the last two and a half years, followed by a high number of consents issued in June,” Porirua City Council Environment and Regulatory Services General Manager David Rolfe says.
“That would indicate that the Porirua economy is pretty buoyant,” he says.
In the first half of its last financial year, the average time taken to process building consent applications was 14 to 16 working days. But after setting some challenging targets for itself, the Council slashed this to between five and six days in the second half of the year.
Both resource and building consents are subject to the Government’s 20-working day maximum timeframe.
Mr Rolfe says the Council was keen to make its processes more customer friendly and less onerous for the likes of builders and developers.
Changes included introducing an appointment system so that those applying for consents could arrange to see a council officer first.
“From there we’re able to work with the applicant and get a better quality application,” Mr Rolfe says.
Good quality applications mean faster processing, he says.
“Poor quality applications had been a problem in the past and that’s where we’ve had to put applications on hold. But we’ve really put effort in at the front end of our process to get more information and better quality information,” he says.
Mr Rolfe says the improvements help give builders and developers certainty.
“If you put in a quality application we have more certainty about when you’ll get a decision - and that can be really important,” he says.
“I think the Council should be proud of the performance and the level of service we can give to developers and builders.”
5 August 2010
Most Porirua residents satisfied with how rates are spent
Most Porirua residents say they are satisfied with the way rates are spent according to the recent National Research Bureau (NRB) survey.
Results of the survey were reported to the Council's Strategy, Finance and Regulatory Committee today.
Committee Chairperson Euon Murrell says three quarters (76%) of residents surveyed were satisfied with the way rates were spent on Council services and facilities.
"This is the fourth year running that we've seen an upward trend in this measure. Our council is often accused of charging too much in rates because people don't realise that the bulk of the city's income (70%) is rates dependent – unlike other councils which have alternative revenue streams."
Mayor Jenny Brash agrees.
"It's reassuring to know that people are consistently happy with how we are spending rates funding. We do work very hard to keep rates as low as possible and are in the bottom third of similar councils for operating expenses per capita."
14% of residents said they were not satisfied with the way council spent rates (down from 19% in 2009). The percentage of those not happy is below the peer group and national averages.
Mayor Brash says residents continue to have a high level of satisfaction in most Council services, facilities and performance areas.
The sewerage system (96%) and water supply (95%) are the two top ranked services in importance to residents. They also continue to rank highly in satisfaction (both at 93%). Parks, public gardens and reserves (96%), Pataka (86%), litter removal (86%), and swimming pools (85%) also ranked highly in satisfaction, while Council's role in creating the right conditions for business (54%) and Council-owned public halls ranked less well (59%).
"The survey is very useful to show us areas of positive feedback. On the other hand, we also want to know where reduced levels of satisfaction have occurred, to work out why this may have happened and whether action is needed" says Mayor Brash.
This is the 15th year the Council has commissioned the NRB to survey residents on the services, facilities and performance of Porirua City Council, says Council Chief Executive Roger Blakeley.
"Over the last nine and a half years I have always been very proud of the way we serve Porirua and its residents with a wide range of services and facilities. The measures we survey have seen changes over that period and reflect how the Council as an organisation continues to improve the services we provide for the people of Porirua."
A new measure on Emergency Management was added to the survey this year and 56% of Porirua residents said their households were ready for an emergency by having stored water, food, survival items and a household emergency plan. This compares with 22% in the Greater Wellington Regional Council survey of 2007/08.
The results show that for a number of measures there was considerable variation between Wards. Northern ward residents were more satisfied with dog control services (80%) than their counterparts in the Eastern and Western wards respectively (74% and 73%). Conversely only 53% in the Northern ward were satisfied with Council-owned halls, compared to 65% and 58% for Eastern and Western respectively.
88% of Eastern ward residents were satisfied with the maintenance of street footpaths compared to 74% and 70% for Western and Northern respectively. Conversely only 77% of the Eastern ward residents were satisfied with the library services compared to 95% and 82% for Western and Northern wards.
Councillor Murrell says he is pleased to see an increase in satisfaction where the Council had increased funding based on earlier NRB surveys results.
"The Council put extra resource into litter removal last year so perhaps the increase in satisfaction in this service is a direct outcome to that response."
Roading comments related to road conditions, speeding and driver behaviour, road safety, and need for an increase or decrease in traffic calming. State Highways are not the Council's responsibility, but aspects of SH1 such as Mana Esplanade, and SH58 tend to feature in the survey results.
NRB is an independent market research company offering specialised services to Local Authorities. The survey involves 400 face to face interviews with a randomly selected, but representative, sample of Porirua residents. The margin of error is +/– 3.9%. To view the complete NRB survey go to our NRB Reports page.
4 August 2010
Porirua Economy Keeps Strengthening
Porirua City's economy continues to do well, even in recession; a recent review by BERL (Business Economic Research Limited) has shown.
The Report's authors Michael Webster, David Norman and Dr Ganesh Nana say Porirua City’s economy performed strongly in the difficult economic environment of 2009, achieving far better results than the Wellington Region or New Zealand in the key indicators of GDP, employment and labour productivity.
Mayor Jenny Brash says looking at the long-term trends since 1999, Porirua's employment, GDP and business numbers all increased at a greater rate than seen nationally and regionally.
"Porirua City recorded a solid increase in business numbers over the decade, averaging 3.9 percent growth since 1999. In comparison, Wellington Region grew by 2.8 percent and the country by 3.0 percent," Mayor Brash says.
This has resulted in the strong employment and GDP growth that Porirua has also experienced, up 2.9 percent and 2.6 percent per year respectively.
"Porirua City now employs 15,500 full time equivalent workers across 3,840 businesses, producing $1.33 billion in GDP."
"Our city recorded a moderate population expansion over the decade which, taken with the data on employment and GDP growth, suggests that a far larger proportion of residents are now working locally, rather than travelling into Wellington City or elsewhere for work."
She says increasing the number of residents working in the city has been a key objective of Council's Economic Development Strategy and work both locally and regionally has contributed to this outcome.
The social services and retail and distribution sectors remain the largest employers in Porirua, while business services contribute most to GDP.
Sectors in which the city enjoys high concentrations include education; chemical and associated product manufacturing; and health services.
"The retail trade sector saw strong growth in employment in 2009, up 7.7 percent, and has enjoyed 2.6 percent a year growth since 1999. Education has also seen strong rises since 1999, up 2.4 percent a year. Overall, there are around 23 more businesses in the education sector in Porirua than there were 10 years ago."
At the other end of the spectrum, manufacturing sectors are under-represented, including food and beverage; metal products; textiles; machinery and equipment; and non-metallic mineral product manufacturing.
View more information on the Berl Economics Report.
4 August 2010
Porirua City a finalist in the International Awards for Liveable Communities
Porirua City has just been named a finalist in the three categories entered in the 2010 International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom Awards).
They are:
Whole of City - Category B (average daytime population of between 20,000 – 75,000) This award is judged against six criteria: natural and built landscapes; arts, culture and heritage; environmental best practices; community participation and empowerment; healthy lifestyle and strategic planning.
Environmentally Sustainable Project Awards
This recognises innovative Projects that demonstrate sustainability and environmental awareness, and have a positive impact on the local community and environment. We have entered our Porirua Village Planning Programme.
Bursary Award
Only communities entering the Whole City section are eligible to apply for a Bursary Award. PCC entered the Waitangirua Park waharoa and associated carvings project. The winner will receive funding of up to £10,000 Sterling towards the project costs.
Mayor Jenny Brash says she is excited to see Porirua being recognised on an international stage and that the city is a finalist in all three categories entered.
"Getting to the finals is a significant achievement for our city. It shows the world what we all know and that is that Porirua is a great place to live with communities and organisations that work well together for the good of the whole city.
"I understand that the international judging panel is very rigorous and demanding in their questioning of each of finalist. Making the finals is testimony to the quality of life that we enjoy here in Porirua and contradicts the widely held negative view of Porirua. If we win, hopefully it will silence our detractors for good."
There was a record entry for this year’s UN-backed LivCom Awards with communities from across five continents bidding for a place in the finals to be held in Chicago, USA, from 4-8 November 2010.
PCC Chief Executive Roger Blakeley says the benefits of winning the awards could be huge.
"It's invaluable for marketing our city to have Porirua recognised as a "leading community" and named one of the most liveable communities in the world. This is an opportunity to showcase Porirua City's Best Practice on an international stage and influence International Best Practice and it will further enhance our own civic pride."
Past recent winners of the Whole of City award in our population category include:
- 2004 Qian Dao HU PR China, 2005 Erandio, Spain, 2006 Brasschaat, Belgium, 2007 Kladno, Czech Republic, 2008 New Plymouth, New Zealand and 2009 Newark on Trent, England.
"New Plymouth City Council has told us that winning the award in 2008 has had huge spin-off benefits for them in marketing their city and building international networks," Dr Blakeley says.
The LivCom Awards were launched internationally in 1997 and are endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the scheme is run as a UK Registered Charity.
For full details of the Awards, go on-line on www.livcomawards.com.
View our award applications:
View our Villages Planning Programme section of this website for more information about each village.