Rotorua council to replant high-risk city garden beds after surge in near-miss incidents

Rotorua Lakes Council crews working on a garden bed in the CBD. Photo / NZME

Almost 60 central Rotorua garden beds will be replanted after gardeners had a series of close calls with passing vehicles.

A staff report to Rotorua Lakes Council’s Wednesday meeting said 59 of the 644 inner-city gardens were high-risk, with a growing trend of near misses for staff working on the beds.

Incidents increased from just one in 2022-23 to 14 in 2023-24 and 21 in 2024-25. There had been 13 so far in this financial year.

The most common incidents involved road cones being run over by large vehicles, such as buses or trucks, with Fenton St the most common location for near misses.

The council’s active and engaged communities manager, Rob Pitkethley, said there were four incidents in which staff “had to take evasive action to get out of the way”.

“These are not just the odd cone getting pinged over.”

Rotorua Lakes Council active and engaged communities manager Rob Pitkethley. Photo / Andrew Warner

Fears about their safety led council works staff to stop conducting traffic management as part of their responsibilities from July.

Traffic management for garden works is now outsourced, and recruiting continues for internal traffic management staff.

Councillors voted unanimously to replace high-risk gardens with a combination of grass and lower-maintenance native plants, while planting new flower beds elsewhere to offset the loss.

Rotorua is known for its public gardens and blooming streetscapes, often mentioned in its run of Most Beautiful City wins in the early 2000s.

A 2023 proposal to trim the city’s beautification budget by scaling back garden beds was opposed by 80% of respondents.

This week’s safety-driven recommendations would reduce shrub gardens by less than 1% and save $5000–$10,000 on maintenance annually.

Rotorua Lakes Council staff working on garden beds in the city centre. Photo / NZME

Councillors voted to ask the community for feedback on the changes. This would happen “at a suitable time” after the replanting had started.

Council chief executive Andrew Moraes said it would not be costly to scale back the changes if community feedback warranted it.

Councillor Fisher Wang said he believed they had found the right balance of maintaining the gardens while mitigating risk.

“The main point here is around safety for our staff.

“Heaven forbid one of those near misses turns into one of our staff members being hit by a car or even a truck.”

Rotorua Lakes Councillor Fisher Wang at Wednesday's council meeting. Photo / Mathew Nash

Robert Lee agreed this was a “touchy subject” but believed it was an “operational matter” because of the minor impact on the broader service being provided.

“I think the chief executive has a responsibility to look after our staff and keep them safe,” he said.

“We just need to get the job done and keep our people safe.”

Mayor Tania Tapsell voted against including community consultation, as did Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong and councillor Gregg Brown.

Tapsell said the service changes were “insignificant” and she did not want to waste constituents’ time on meeting health and safety requirements.

“Health and safety are non-negotiable.”

In Wednesday’s meeting, the final one of the year, the council also voted to return the Rotorua Night Market to Tutanekai St.

Councillors also approved consultation on updated parking rules and off-licence trading hours and finalised their 2026 public meeting schedule.

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 the UK for eight years.

- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.