The Rotorua Night Market is returning to its long-time home in Tutanekai St. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua’s Night Market will return to the inner city after Rotorua Lakes Council voted to end a trial move to Kuirau Park, two months after it began.
Elected members voted eight-to-three to return the market to its previous Tūtānekai St location “as soon as reasonably practical”, in the council’s final meeting of the year today.
The motion was brought by councillor Robert Lee, who told the meeting the results of the Kuirau Park trial were “manifestly obvious”, calling it “not a success”.
He said returning to the inner city would help businesses regain tourist foot traffic and after-work customers.
A draft report on the trial is due at the council’s first meeting of 2026 in February, but councillors opted to act before receiving it.
The council began the trial in October to save $200,000 in costs, enable earlier summer trading, and address health and safety concerns.
The trial decision was made during the pre-election period, with council chief executive Andrew Moraes working on a direction to cut costs.
Eight councillors, however, decided the trial was not proving successful.
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said she had heard from many residents who believed the move to Kuirau Park had been a “foolish decision”.
She believed the market was a strong social investment in the city and that any delay in the decision might result in there being “no market left” to save after summer.
Ben Sandford, Fisher Wang and Te Rika Temara-Benfell were all frequent patrons of the night market and agreed the trial had not worked out.
Trevor Maxwell and Don Paterson agreed the market was necessary to retain “vibrancy” in the inner city, and Gregg Brown had no objection to the return.
Mayor Tania Tapsell, Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong and councillor Karen Barker voted against the motion.
Tapsell said she was “slightly disappointed” not to see the comprehensive February report and did not want to make a “reactionary” decision.
She also expressed concern that the night market might fall outside the core services central Government has mandated local councils to focus on.
Barker said the investigation was to “reduce costs” and that the trial was doing that.
“There are ratepayers who do not use the night market who will have to pay for it,” she said.
She also believed the market would not be considered an essential service and preferred to wait to see the full report before making a decision.
Moraes said the cost of traffic management might increase due to health and safety concerns in Tūtānekai St, costs which would likely fall on the ratepayer.
Cowboy Roast House owner Farnoud Rahimi Mansour operates a shop on Tūtānekai St and a stall at the Night Market, and has opposed the trial relocation from the start.
“I think most people will be happy,” Mansour told Local Democracy Reporting of the decision to end the trial.
He said he had seen comments online, with “about 95% of people” wanting the market to return.
He had lost some of his regular customers, who he hoped would now come back.
Reg Hennessy, the owner of Hennessy’s Irish Bar on Tūtānekai St and who was part of the group who initially pushed for the night market 15 years ago, was “pleased” with the decision.
“It’s a win for both common sense and for the popular opinion of the residents of Rotorua,” Hennessy said.
“I’ll be pleased to see all the stallholders back into the street the first Thursday back, all smiling and happy to be home.”
He was happy the council had recognised that a “poor decision” had been made and had moved to rectify it.
He hoped this would be an opportunity to make more use of the inner city.
“There’s so much potential, and it’s just how much they can use their imagination,” he said.
The council’s group manager of community experience, Alex Wilson, said a survey on the Night Market trial had received about 300 responses. These were still being processed, but the majority shared a preference to return to the prior location.
She said the market could shift back within “a couple of weeks”, although an official return date was yet to be finalised.
Investigations into the ultimate future of the Night Markets, including the potential of new management, would continue, with expressions of interest opening in January.
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in Britain for eight years.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.