Queenstown Lakes' call for ideas to help the community recover from the Covid-19 pandemic has been answered.
Queenstown. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
In response to the pandemic, which has decimated the area's tourism-driven economy, the Queenstown Lakes District Council launched Torokiki - a platform allowing the community to offer its suggestions to solve the district's challenges.
The first six-week round of challenges looked at diversifying the district's economy, building community resilience, and reducing food waste and climate change.
It generated 24 ideas.
The council's Torokiki lead Bill Nicoll said the development and launch of Torokiki was driven by the urgency for the district to recover economically from Covid-19.
"The QLDC Recovery team is thrilled with the level of support shown for Torokiki and appreciates the contributions made by our community in terms of sharing their ideas, feedback and votes in such an open and supportive manner," he said.
Among the ideas to diversify the economy were making Queenstown the world's work from home capital to increase residents not reliant on visitors, making the town an outdoor education centre, and building a base for visiting scientists and researchers in Glenorchy.
A food bank discount card to allow those donating to community groups to buy goods at cost, and a community hub focussed on mental health and well-being were mooted to increase resilience.
While utilising public spaces for community gardens and composting supermarket food waste were suggested to reduce food waste.
A review of all ideas would be done by the Torokiki Challenge Owners to assess their potential for progression, Nicoll said
This could involve connecting those with ideas to a network of support or helping to identify funding to launch them for the benefit of the community.
Once assessed, submitters would be contacted and advised of the next steps.
"Looking ahead, we see significant potential for Torokiki to help enable a genuine movement of community-led innovation, which focuses both on the recovery from Covid-19 and on the broader challenges and opportunities that exist across our district," he said.