Our community's plan is to develop the Hororata Community Hub surrounding the existing Hororata Hall and its site.

The Hororata community has been working together since 2017 on the development of a new facility that will provide for future generations. The need for a community facility in Hororata has been proven in two independent studies, one carried out by Octa Associates in 2017 and the other by Gruden Consultants in 2021.

The original plan was for a new facility on the Hororata Domain, however, with the Council making significant changes to this project in the long-term plan in 2021 and changing the funding structure to be unworkable Go Hororata went back to the drawing board to come up with a solution which is going to have the best outcome for the community with the resources available.

Go Hororata Chair Craig Blackburn commented “What hasn’t changed is that we need a hub that will connect private and public organisations providing the community a platform to grow, share and unite. The physical buildings will give the springboard for new opportunities around the whole community.

But what become obvious in the past 12 months is that this type of hub is not possible to develop with Council involvement. We need to be able to be flexible, to stage the project and use our wider support network to develop this hub. Unfortunately, this is not possible to do with the Selwyn Council and we believe will get a better outcome for our area and the wider district developing this project as a community.”

One of the priorities for Go Hororata is to protect the Hororata Museum’s collection. This is a unique and significant collection that tells the stories of the pioneers who first established this area. The current museum building has degraded to a state of disrepair and the collection is now at risk.

“The option of repurposing part of the existing Hororata Hall as the museum was something the Hororata Historical Society and Go Hororata engaged consultants to explore; keeping in mind the wider and greater needs of the community such as space for Playcentre, meetings, events, school activities, access to technology and a place to gather.

Going through this process confirmed what we already knew and painted a far bigger picture as it became obvious that we need to create a hub that connects our past, present and future surrounding the existing Hororata hall and land.

The result is that we will develop a modern vibrant community hub that retains heritage and provides for community needs now and into the future. This hub will be centred around the existing Hororata Hall and its site. The hub will provide fantastic facilities for the community to use and be a destination for people to visit; the opportunities are endless. The very generous offers of financial support we have now and a well-thought-out brief means our community can achieve this.

The first step is to get the Hororata Hall and land back into community control. We are lucky to have the Hororata Community Trust as a charitable entity already set up in the community to manage this process. We already have $1 million committed to the project and are simply asking the Council to honour their commitment to Hororata by investing the $1 million which was allocated in the Long-Term Plan. The community will then be responsible for developing and maintaining this asset. There is no impact to rates so we really hope people right around Selwyn support the proposal in the Annual Plan.”

There will be a public meeting in the Hororata Hall Wednesday 4th May, 7.00pm to elect the new Residents Committee. This new group will amalgamate with Go Hororata and replace the Hororata Reserve and Citizens committees that are being dissolved as committees of Council. People will also have the opportunity to learn more about the Community Hub at this meeting. See documents attached to this article. 

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