Media Release

13 September 2006

Stellar year for the Waitakere community

Waitakere’s community facilities are proving more popular than ever, with record numbers of people using them.

This month the Waitakere City Council’s Finance and Operational Performance Committee heard that the Massey Leisure Centre exceeded its targeted visitor numbers in the 2005/06 financial year.

The Massey Leisure Centre, which provides a range of community functions, including a crèche, meeting room and a two-court stadium had over 191,000 visitors.

This was an eight per cent increase – 14,835 more visitors – on the year before.

Further, each of Waitakere’s seven community houses massively exceeded their year’s performance targets which relate to their number of visitors and programmed activities.

For example, while Massey’s community house had a target of 10,000 visitors for the 2005/06 financial year; nearly 30,000 people actually used the facility.

“It is wonderful to see these grass-roots community resources being so terrifically supported,” says Councillor Janet Clews, chair of the Finance and Operational Performance Committee.

“Not only do these community houses provide vital social resources, they are also crucial in helping build a sense of local identity and belonging,” she says.

The houses host an array of local user groups, ranging from Plunket to yoga, to diabetes eye clinics and patchwork and other crafts classes.

Another local success story is Sport Waitakere, whose programmes proved successful in keeping the community active.

One of the highlights of 2005/06 for Sport Waitakere was the amazingly well-supported Hikoi for Health.

More than 300 people attended the event which had a one kilometre track for those aged under five and a four kilometre track for older participants.

ENDS

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