The Takutai Charitable trust has been granted Franklin Local Board strategic partnership funding and a lease over Beachlands Log Cabin.
The popular Sunkist Bay community venue had been operated by a trust that dissolved itself recently, and Takutai has stepped in to manage the Wakelin Road facility.
The trust operates a small business dedicated to recycling and repurposing items in the Beachlands village, so that waste can be reduced, with all proceeds returned to the community.
It is also operating a range of community initiatives such as food supply and helping people access other forms of support.
Franklin Local Board Wairoa member Malcolm Bell says from the outside it can appear that Beachlands and Maraetai are wealthy areas where family support services such as those operating in Pukekohe and Waiuku might not be needed.
“But if you look much closer you realise that just like everywhere else across Franklin, there are people struggling.”
Takutai applied for partnership support, but its application was unable to proceed, and rather than reject it, the board asked for it to be resubmitted in more detail.
Wairoa member Angela Fulljames says because Franklin is so large it is divided into three wards, Waiuku, Pukekohe and Wairoa, and she was keen to see similar levels of support available in the Wairoa subdivision as were being provided in the other two areas.
“This is a new group unfamiliar with dealing with council, so it was appropriate we went back for more detail, rather than just closing the door. Funding will give the trust a little bit of certainty and help get it up and on its feet.”
That view was supported by board chair Andy Baker. “We have had some sound advice around the partnerships we want to forge, particularly with groups operating in the social space.
“It’s not a matter of giving everyone the same, because we need to take size and the extent of the different group’s operations into account, but we do need to make sure our decisions are fair, especially when we are dealing with a new group, and one likely to be significant not only to the board, but the wider community.”
