By Laura Smith, Local Democracy Reporter
Rotorua Citizens Advice Bureau manager Jane Eynon-Richards. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
There are fears a service that helps thousands of Rotorua people each year will have to close if the council goes ahead with a proposal to cut its funding.
Rotorua Lakes Council wants to cut the $40,000 a year it gives the Rotorua Citizens Advice Bureau - nearly half of the service's annual grants funding.
Citizens Advice Bureau manager Jane Eynon-Richards said it received an email from the council about the proposed funding cuts on 14 April.
The email, seen by Local Democracy Reporting, said the annual plan consultation document had been released and the council was proposing to stop funding community groups and would work to secure funding from other sources.
It said this would save $275,000 in 2023/2024 and $435,000 from 2024/2025 onwards. The email said the remainder of the council's funding agreement with the CAB, which finishes next year, would be honoured.
Eynon-Richards said it was a shock to the team, including herself and the 58 volunteers who helped 3000 people in January, February and March alone.
In her opinion: "To think we are not valued is quite heartbreaking."
Rotorua mayor Tania Tapsell said the bureau's services were valued but the council was proactively looking at what it should and should not spend rates on in these tough financial times.
Eynon-Richards has been at the bureau for the last 20 years and said the most satisfying aspect of the job was when clients came back to say the advice given had worked.
That advice ranged from helping with housing, tenancy and relationship issues, to income support, help with immigration, employment rights and neighbour disputes.
A lawyer and justice of the peace were based at the bureau several days a week.
Eynon-Richards said the bureau helped clients referred by the council with tree, fence and shared driveway issues.
The service had operated in the city for 45 years but Eynon-Richards was worried about its future.
The bureau would last about a year without the council funding, she said.
Her part-time role was the only paid position, and she would now need to spend time finding an alternative source of funding that also covered rent.
She believed this would prove difficult as it was often harder to get funding for operational costs.
The bureau's work is also funded by grants totalling $47,000 from Rotorua Trust, Community Organisation Grants Scheme, Lottery Grant funding, and a small contract with the Ministry of Immigration for settlement support advice.
The council has funded the bureau for at least 20 years, first through a community grant and then through a partnership grant.
On average it helps 12,000 clients a year. In the last financial year, 29 percent of those it helped identified as Māori and the biggest age cohort was people in their 30s, at 24 percent.
If the bureau closed, other providers and organisations would need to see these people instead, Eynon-Richards said.
Demand had increased during the cost of living crisis as people sought advice on redundancy or needing food, or had been evicted for missed rent payments, she said.
The council's draft annual plan proposes increased fees and spending cuts to limit the rates increase to an average 7.2 percent.
Cuts to save $665,000 are proposed to community well-being investment but the draft plan does not specify how many other community groups could have their funding cut. It said it would work with affected groups to find funding from "more suitable" sources.
The consultation document said the council believed that within the overall district, there were already viable community funders that could potentially better support community groups. It said there was duplication with other funders and "high costs" of administration.
A council spokesperson said the proposal was one of a number supported by elected members and outlined in the consultation document.
"The draft annual plan is currently out for public consultation and it would be inappropriate for [the] council to comment on any of the proposals at this point in time.
"The finalised annual plan will be adopted at the end of June which is when we would have confirmation of which proposals have been accepted."
Tapsell said the bureau's services were "no doubt" valued by the community.
She said the council would honour the three-year Partnership Agreements fund which had one year left, after which the bureau would have had to reapply anyway.
"It's very tough times financially for families in our community so [the] council is being proactive and taking the opportunity now to look seriously at what [it] should, and shouldn't be spending rates on to keep it as affordable as possible.
"We need to make responsible decisions in the best interests of our wider community and at times this will mean resetting how previous councils operated to be more efficient and deliver for the current needs of Rotorua."
Tapsell said she had met with the bureau to reassure them the final year of the current agreement would not be impacted and to reassure them directly of "my appreciation for the work that they do".
She encouraged people to have their say on the draft plan.
Rotorua Trust chairman Stewart Edward previously told Local Democracy Reporting: "It is our view the council can't make an assumption that the community funders in Rotorua will be available to meet the loss in funding."
Consultation on the draft annual plan will end on 12 May and details about how to submit can be found on the council website.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.