Ngarunui Beach will have paid surf life saving patrols through to February 19. An anonymous donation of $25,000 has allowed the summer patrol season on Raglan’s main swimming beach to be extended.
The donation was made to Surf Life Saving Northern Region (SLSNZ) this week. This means that Sunset Beach at Port Waikato will also benefit. This was confirmed by SLSNZ acting chief executive Matt Williams.
Surf Life Saving Northern Region was left $41,000 short to operate watches at Ngarunui Beach and Sunset Beach in Port Waikato.
Waipa District Council gave an additional 10,000 from its emergency relief fund.
The cash injection allowed an extra two weeks of weekday patrols on the beaches, and the latest donation meant a watch would be in place every day this summer.
Williams said earlier that Hamilton City Council withdrew its funding after an agreement between neighbouring authorities that it would be spearheaded by the Waikato Regional Council.
Waikato Regional Council was unable to allocate more funds as SLSNZ’s application was made after the cut-off date for the funding round.
Waikato regional council chairperson Paula Southgate said it was unfair to blame the council.
“We were asked to look at a funding model for them that was regional for the last annual plan. Unfortunately their formal request came out after the annual plan was put up for public consideration,” she said.
“That’s a massive amount of money and we need to negotiate what the funding is for and what we should be funding and what local government should be putting in.
“We have continued to fund them the same amount of money.”
Southgate said there would be further talks with SLSNR and other councils about a regional funding plan.
“We indicated that we were happy to see whether the most sensible and efficient way to collect the rate on behalf of all ratepayers, would be to collect it in one place.
“This makes sense to me because they would be able to come to one organisation every year with certainty about funding, however that will be a process.”
However this funding source may dry up completely in future as the Government has changed the rules for local councils making donations during annual planning rounds. Waikato District Council has already written to organisations it has funded in the past telling them about the changes.