Porritt Glade Lifestyle Village is to be renamed Malcolm Campbell Lifestyle Village, in honour of the long-standing former Kawerau mayor who died in May.

The village was developed by Kawerau District Council under Campbell’s leadership, answering a need for community members to downsize in their retirement years.

Campbell, who was mayor of Kawerau for seven terms and served on the council for 27 years, had been instrumental in the development of the village, which opened in 2020.

The council was a finalist in the Taituarā awards for excellence in local government for the creation of the village.

His friends and family members, including his wife Adrienne, attended the meeting on Wednesday, at which the council approved the renaming.

Longtime colleague Chris Marjoribanks spoke in support of the renaming at a council meeting on Wednesday, saying Campbell had contributed a lot to the council over the years.

“We have many names around our community, that, sometimes I question and wonder where they have migrated from and what they contributed to our town to deserve the recognition.

“I don’t see anyone who has contributed more than our past mayor, Malcolm Campbell.”

Former Mayor Malcolm Campbell died in May this year after serving the district of Kawerau for seven terms as mayor.

A report to council said the application to rename the village came from Porritt Glade and was supported by village residents, and the Campbell family.

“Malcolm pushed for the needed development, when no one else was interested in developing Kawerau.

“This also made Kawerau District Council the first council to operate a lifestyle village. Malcolm remained involved as a member of board, staying connected to this development from conception, completion and beyond,” the report said.

Councillor Berice Julian recalled that the creation of the lifestyle village had caused a “furore” at the time.

“Particularly with the Auditor-General, because no council had ever done anything like this before. There was a lot of midnight oil burnt, figuring out how they were going to do it.

“To the best of my knowledge, we still are the only council in the country that has built a retirement village and I know that Malcolm was a big driver behind that.

“To be able to honour his work, is something that I’m all for.”

The village was originally named after Porritt Drive, the street leading to it, which is thought to have been named for former 100m sprint Olympic bronze medallist (1924) and Governor-General (1967-1972) Sir Arthur Porritt.

Many place names around Kawerau were named for prominent New Zealand statesmen of the time.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.