Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) has launched an online platform where members of the community can pitch ideas on how the district can recover from COVID-19 socially, economically and environmentally.

The platform, Torokiki, emerged out of the QLDC recovery work following the impacts of COVID-19. 

Mayor Jim Boult and others within the council received lots of ideas from the community about how it could recover from COVID-19. The new platform will help manage those ideas and ensure the ones with the most impact can be driven forward, council said.

Ideas suggested at Torokiki so far include making Queenstown the world’s outdoor education hub, using public land to grow food or beneficial wildlife, and take steps to better connect our population to existing community groups and support networks.

“Torokiki will help us prioritise and judge the [ideas] which will have the most benefit and impact on the community,” Jim said. 

“It’s not just about council deciding what will be best, but allowing the entire community to input and help drive the ideas. Recovery is about everyone working together.”

One suggestion submitted was to use public land to grow food, such as the Hawea Food Forest pictured. PHOTO: Supplied

QLDC is currently looking for ideas on three challenges which centre on important themes for the district including:

• How to diversify the economy for Queenstown Lakes to minimise the effects of future shocks to our district
• How to become more resilient in social communities, towns and the district given the recent impacts of COVID-19
• How to reduce our district’s food waste and improve the resilience of our local food system to climate change

The ideas that gain the most support will be progressed either through direct funding or by helping to connect the idea with local partners who can help make them a reality, a QLDC spokesperson said.

“Prior to the official launch of Torokiki the mayor’s office received a significant number of idea suggestions. These ideas have now been sorted and reviewed with several being actively progressed by the Short Term Recovery Taskforce,” the spokesperson said. 

Everyone who has previously shared an idea directly to the council has received feedback and is now encouraged to register with Torokiki and share their ideas for solutions.

Click here to create a user profile and get started. 

“This is a really important part of our recovery process. We need to do some extraordinary things to revitalise our district so we’re looking for some extraordinary ideas submitted to Torokiki,” Jim said.