Te Puna Hall's future - have your say

A new roundabout could mean the end of the Te Puna war Memorial Hall, built and paid by the community for those who died in WW1. L-R, Rosealeen Holmes and Beth Bowden

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is seeking community views on the future of the Te Puna War Memorial Hall once it is removed to make way for the new roundabout on State Highway 2.

The council is holding an open day at the hall on July 31 from 12 noon to 7.30pm for people to express their views.

A roundabout at the intersection of the corner of Te Puna/Minden roads and has been chosen as the best solution to improve the safety of the busy intersection. The design contract for the roundabout was awarded in March to Opus Consultants by the NZ Transport Agency.

Removal of the hall is a requirement of the project due to the amount of land required to build the roundabout and the associated roading links.

However the hall is of significant historic and social value to the Te Puna community and the council needs direction from residents, community organisations, local businesses and other interested parties as to the future location and what type of community facility people envisage the future hall to be.

The hall averages 14 bookings a week catering for a range of activities such as ballroom dancing, keep fit classes, post natal programmes, indoor bowls, church meetings, Zumba classes, gardening and many private functions.

Three main issues are at the centre of the community's concerns - the building of a safe intersection that provides easy connectivity between the Minden, the current commercial area and the Te Puna peninsula area; to provide adequate funding for a centrally located community centre (either a relocated or a new like-for-like building) that offers a range of activities that will serve the community for the next 50 years; and that the cultural and heritage values associated with the history of the hall are incorporated in future decisions.

The hall land was gifted by the Armstrong family as a memorial to those local men who served in the First World War and the hall was built in 1923 by voluntary community labour. One of every three Te Puna men who served in the Great War never returned home.