Local Focus: Land to be returned to Rotorua hapū

Local residents visited Rotorua's council chambers last Thursday to present submissions for the return of Pururu Reserve.

"We were approached by Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara about the return of land that they had gifted to the council some years ago," Rotorua Lakes Council group manager for Māori, Gina Rangi said.

"We held a hearing this morning to hear public submissions on whether that land should be returned."

A local resident Mary Corbett said the submission was about the return of land on Tarewa Rd that was gifted by her father Patu Rahurihi in the 1960s.

Rangi said, having heard the submissions, the elected members voted unanimously to revoke the reserve status of the tennis courts of the reserve. It was a small but important victory for one resident who has lived on Tarewa Rd all her life.

"The council has agreed to return the land, the recreational reserve, back to our whānau," Corbett said. "What will happen is it will go under a common law trust and the Tarewa Marae will then become the trustees of that piece of land. Then we will look to options for the future of what we're going to do with it," she said.

There are plans to help develop the site into a housing project to help Rotorua's less fortunate.

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