Waikato District Council, as the administrating body, gives notice to its intention to grant a lease to Friendship House Huntly Community Charitable Trust for the purpose of operating the Huntly Arts Group from the building known as Huntly Scout Building on Hakanoa Domain.

Councillors have indicated support for the proposal by approving notifying the public of the proposal to grant a lease of reserve land in Huntly West Domain to Friendship House Huntly Community Charitable Trust (Infrastructure Committee 5 July 2023 resolution number INF2307/06)

The Reserves Act 1977 (the Act) requires public notification of the intention to grant the lease and a call for feedback to the proposal, so we would like to hear your thoughts.

The reserve is legally described as part of Part Allot 540 Taupiri PSH and part of Allot 776 Taupiri PSH. The proposed lease will be for a maximum term of 9 years and is for an area of ground approximately 625 m2.

Council was approached by Scouts New Zealand (Scouts NZ) regarding their scout hall building (Huntly Scout Building) at Hakanoa Domain. Scouts NZ made the decision to terminate their lease with Council in Hakanoa Domain and proposed that the Huntly Scout Building could be passed onto another community group instead of being removed by them.

Council staff then received a lease proposal from Friendship House Huntly Community Charitable Trust (Friendship House) for the Huntly Scout Building for the purpose of operating the Huntly Arts Group. The proposed lease area is indicated in the map in the Document Library (to the right).

This lease proposal will enable the use Huntly Scout Building as a community arts centre for a variety of workshops as well as being open to for public drop ins, exhibitions, shows, resident artist opportunities and creativity activities.

If you would like to know more details of the lease proposal submitted by Friendship House, you can find the information in the background document from Friendship House (to the right).