Students use video to lobby council

ON SCREEN: Rangitikei College students Gillian Bowler, Sam Hunter, Fionn O'Gorman and Zac Scott have been preparing the school's submission on the Rangitikei District Council annual plan. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Rangitikei College students are using a different platform to lobby council to help fund a multisport facility at the school.

Unlike most submissions, which are written, the students will be putting their views in video as part of the Rangitikei District Council's annual plan consultation.

The council are proposing that ratepayer funding be put into a new $435,000 multisport park planned for the school and a $1.6 million international-standard hockey turf upgrade for Nga Tawa Diocesan School.

The Rangitikei College facility will be available for public use and the Nga Tawa turf will be used by hockey players across the district.

The council has indicated it can provide up to $100,000 towards each facility and a further $100,000 to the Rangitikei College multipurpose turf from the insurance payout from the Centennial Park turf which was destroyed last June.

The two Marton schools are working together to promote their respective projects and have gone online to encourage submissions.

"They're much more comfortable talking to their peers on-screen than taking pen to paper on a submission form, and we felt council would get a truer reflection of the value to our students of directing funds into these quite different turf developments," Rangitikei College principal Tony Booker said.

Council strategy and community planning manager Denise Servante said receiving a filmed submission would be a first but it was clearly a project that was important to the students.

With students Zac Scott behind the lens and Gillian Bowler asking questions, Rangitikei College students have been asked their views on the project over the past few days.

Rangitikei College head girl Elle Welsh said the multiple-use nature of the planned facility was important.

"I'm not a hockey player but it'll have everything I need and heaps of variety for stacks of sports," she said.

Submissions to the Rangitikei District draft annual plan close at midday on Friday, and the Rangitikei College online submission video will be able to be viewed from then.

See www.rangitikeiturf.co.nz for details of the proposals along with information on how to make an online submission.