More seats for Rotorua city

The old wooden seats in the City Focus have been removed to make way for new 'Jake Seats'. Photo / Ben Fraser

The Rotorua District Council is progressively installing new public seating throughout the inner city with "Jake Seats" designed by young Rotorua man Jake Krebs.

The first prototype Jake Seat was installed on the corner of Tutanekai and Eruera Sts following a recent upgrade of the intersection.

Two more Jake Seats are being installed in the next few days, one at the City Focus and one on the corner of Tutanekai and Pukuatua Sts.

Thanks to generous donations by local businesses, four more seats are under construction, two donated by the Holmes Group, one by TPB Properties and one by social website Neighbourly.

Two of those new seats will be installed in Eat Streat and the other two on other Tutanekai-Pukuatua street corners, bringing the number of Jake Seats in the city to seven.

The new single seat concept replaces a number of previous larger seating clusters removed from some Tutanekai St corners and at the City Focus.

In the past those seating clusters created problems for retailers and shoppers as they were frequently taken over by groups of young people, often accompanied by anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Peter Bentley, who is part of the Inner City Revitalisation strategy, said a recent Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) study recommended replacement of larger seating clusters with single seats.

"It's a public safety issue that we've been pleased to respond to in partnership with local businesses and the Inner City Focus Group.

"But it's also a practical part of our inner city revitalisation action, making the area more attractive and more user friendly," Mr Bentley said.

The council is keen to see more seats installed in the city and would welcome approaches from businesses or individuals who would like to donate a seat. The investment is $3000 and donated seats will be identified with the donor's company name.

Anyone interested can contact Portia McKenzie at the council by calling (07) 348 4199.