Local Focus: Matamata mayor Jan Barnes wants more tourists

Around the country, mayors elected in October 2016 are reaching the half-way point in their three-year terms.

Video journalist Hunter Calder spoke with Matamata-Piako District Council Mayor Jan Barnes.

After some controversy around the development of the Matamata Civic Memorial Centre and Hall, Barnes is happy to see the construction finished and an internal fit-out begun.

"It's about trying to future-proof going forward, what's going to take this build into the future for the ratepayer, getting the best value," Barnes said.

"We get savings by combining assets," she said of the hall, library, memorial centre and council offices.

The building would be unveiled at a public ceremony on Saturday, April 14.

Now in her second term as mayor, Barnes said there were challenges with the "24/7 role".

"You are the property of the public," she said. "But that's what I put my hand up for and I will do my job two-hundred per cent."

Barnes wanted progress on economic development including tourism and extending the Hauraki Rail Trail.

Barnes understood such development would result in more pressures on the roads and public infrastructure with congestion already an issue. She also anticipated problems associated with freedom campers.

She said one solution could be partnering with iwi and implementing a "paid-parking" solution in tourist hot spots such as Wairere Falls.

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