112 | COMMUNITY Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board: Tūwharetoa Partnership T T Karen Phelps Shared aspirations underpin project The Taupō District Council’s new office building has been built to Importance Level 4, with the seismic resilience for it to be used as an Emergency Operations Centre. Work is progressing on Taupō District Council’s offices in the new civic administration building Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa in the Taupō town centre. The project has been undertaken in conjunction with Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa Limited Partnership and has been hailed as symbolic of the shared aspiration to seek a closer and enduring partnership, as well as create a taonga of significance to the Taupō District. In 2017 council was required to vacate its former administration building at 72 Lake Terrace due to a number of health and safety issues. The building was demolished in 2018 after asbestos was discovered and it was deemed too expensive to repair. Since then, its 210 office-based staff has been housed in a variety of temporary locations in the Taupō town centre. The Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa project follows council consultation with the community, which showed community support for the council to lease a building rather than build its own. This saw Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa Limited Partnership, a body representing various Ngāti Tūwharetoa trusts and companies, step up to fill the need. The partnership purchased the former Taupō RSA site at 67 Horomatangi Street from the Taupō District Council and is constructing a building with the majority leased to the council. It will include some co-tenancy space for Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board, Tūwharetoa Settlement Trust and Ngāti Tūwharetoa Fisheries Charitable Trust. Council stated that it was about creating an enduring relationship between council and the mana whenua of the rohe and that being a co-tenant in the building with three Tūwharetoa entities would also be hugely beneficial to its partnership work with iwi. The sentiment has been echoed by Rakeipoho Taiaroa, chairman of Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa who has said the project T T to page 114 “will help mana whenua and local government to work more closely together and to build a cohesive relationship for the future”. Located at 67 Horomātangi Street the new office building has been built to Importance Level 4, with the seismic resilience for it to be used as an Emergency Operations Centre after a natural disaster and to enable vital council infrastructure to continue to operate. It also creates extra efficiencies by bringing council staff, which are presently spread across five different sites, together under one roof again. Council has stated that the advantages of leasing a building include flexibility if council structure changes in the future, adding vibrancy to the town centre and would mean Council can use 61 and 67 Tūwharetoa Street for carparking or other purposes in the future if needed. Te Whare Hono ō Tūwharetoa Scan the following QR Code to watch the video The sentiment has been echoed by Rakeipoho Taiaroa, chairman of Te Whare Hono o Tūwharetoa who has said the project “will help mana whenua and local government to work more closely together and to build a cohesive relationship for the future”.
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