Rotorua Lakes Council name adopted

NEW: The council's new logo with one of its new colours.

Rotorua's council has changed its operating name to the Rotorua Lakes Council as part of a "brand refresh".

The decision was made at a meeting of the council on Thursday night with the new operating name taking effect from yesterday.

Legally, the council will continue to be known as the Rotorua District Council.

However, councillors were split over the proposal, 7-5, with Peter Bentley, Rob Kent, Tania Tapsell, Glenys Searancke and Mark Gould all voting against the name change.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick, deputy mayor Dave Donaldson and councillors Trevor Maxwell, Janet Wepa, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Karen Hunt and Mike McVicker voted for the change.

Councillor Charles Sturt was absent.

"We're a very different council today than the council of past years and a brand refresh will reflect that," Mrs Chadwick said.

"We have a new team, a new direction and a new vision for the future, so it's the right time to update our brand to better represent who we are now."

The Rotorua Lakes Council brand will be rolled out over a period of time as items such as letterheads and vehicle signage come up for replacement.

"By staging the roll-out and using in-house design resources as much as possible, implementation costs can be minimised and will likely be kept under $10,000," Mrs Chadwick said.

Mr Kent and Mr Bentley said they disagreed with the $10,000 sum, saying the cost to implement the name change would be more than $100,000.

Mr Kent said he was in favour of simplifying the many logos the council currently used but felt any name change should go out for public consultation. "$10,000 is just the tip of the iceberg. It does not include things like buildings, signs, vehicles, replacement staff uniforms, marketing costs or legal reviews."

Mr Bentley said it could also cause confusion with other organisations like the Lakes District Health Board and Lakes Community Board.

Mrs Searancke said any change should have gone through a public consultation process. She said she'd received a number of calls from people upset about the change.

Mrs Raukawa-Tait and Ms Hunt said they supported the change and it was about time.

"It's quite exciting, the lakes are synonymous with the district," Mrs Raukawa-Tait said.

Ms Hunt said she was happy with the cost being under $10,000 and it was a fresh look that reflected the council's new emphasis on openness and transparency.

Miss Tapsell said the new logos were not at all exciting and did not reveal anything about the district.

However Mrs Chadwick said with 18 lakes, Rotorua was the country's lakes capital "and we want people to know that".

"Introducing the word lakes into our council title proudly celebrates our district's key natural features - features that impact on our lifestyle and set us apart from others."

The new branding will incorporate three colour formats for various uses. The colours are blue to represent the district's lakes and waterways, green to represent the land, forests and parks, and orange to acknowledge the volcanic and geothermal elements.