Whanganui District Council back at square one after rejecting shipping container youth hub

A proposed pop-up youth hub in a shipping container has been scrapped by the Whanganui District Council.

The Chronicle reported in February that the council spent close to $40,000 for a feasibility study focused on
“places and spaces” for Whanganui youth.

That was completed by Impact Consulting, which proposed the pop-up.

At the time, the reaction from council was lukewarm.

More information was requested to justify the use of the container and to see why other models and options used around the country wouldn’t work in Whanganui.

Council community wellbeing manager Lauren Tamehana told a recent council operations and performance committee that after following up with other centres with pop-ups, it was confirmed the costs in Impact’s report were “unrealistic and unsustainable”.

“In saying that, the feasibility study does provide us with a lot of really good insights, so we’re using that information to be able to move forward and look at other options,” she said.

Impact’s study suggests the annual operational cost of the pop-up will be $135,000 per year but the council’s long-term plan allows for $46,000.

According to Tamehana’s report to the committee, a council officer spoke to a representative of the Life in Vacant Spaces (LiVS) charitable trust in March.

LiVS runs a shipping container space in central Christchurch.

The cost of building materials and difficulty in obtaining them delayed its build and caused the trust to go over its budgeted costs.

“It took them about six months to convert a 20-foot container they already owned, including design time,” the report said.

“Building interest in the area where the shipping container is located took approximately four months to gather momentum as they needed to build excitement, relationships, and trust.

“Physical marketing did not produce positive results in driving interest. They (LiVS) expressed concern at being able to attract people to a space if it is moving as regularly as the proposed 10 times a year.”

Tamehana told the Chronicle Impact’s report provided plenty of valuable insights but their engagement with youth was disrupted by Covid-19.

“We do feel that more consultation is required – but we can see how it would have been quite challenging for Impact to engage with rangatahi at that time.

Whanganui’s youth council was currently very active, she said.

“They have a social media presence, they meet fortnightly to have regular presentations on up-and-coming issues and they also meet formally four times a year.

The youth council also leads project work – currently, the $600ships which are annual grants of $600 to young people with a focus on four key areas – environment/sustainability, diversity/culture, arts/technology and youth development.

It was also working on Awhi te Rangatahi.

“That is all about young people sharing their voice and ideas to ignite a cool event in Whanganui with one-off funding of $1000 up for grabs to make a project become a reality,” Tamehana said.

Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay said he had an urgent request – to set up “some kind of low-key governance body” to get to the point where a model was agreed on.

“Right now, we’ve gone through our feasibility study and we haven’t got to a conclusion. We really need a road map,” he said.

“We know we have enthusiastic members of the youth sector in our community right now that want to have this conversation and want to discuss what the model might look like.”

Tamehana told the committee there was currently a vacancy for the project’s support officer role but things would keep moving.

There had been conversations with organisations that had the potential for “places and spaces in their space”, she said.

“Those are definitely some of the options we need to be looking at – not looking for our own place but where we can add value.”

Council chief executive David Langford said while he appreciated elected members’ frustration around the lack of progress, they should take assurance that a lot of due diligence was going on behind the scenes.

“If we spend our ratepayers’ money, it is on the right project that will have a positive impact on our youth, rather than just doing anything to get the money spent.

“That is the proper and correct way of doing things.”