1% - Waikato District Council

89What We DoSustainable CommunitiesLeisure facilitiesStrategic Direction ContributionsPrimarySecondaryWe provide many parks and reserves, playgrounds and publicfacilities, including aquatic centres and libraries, walkways andsports grounds, providing the facilities and amenities needed fora healthy and thriving community.Our open spaces provide for a mix of activities for examplewalkways, tennis courts, and kayaking, boating and others. Wealso have some sites with archaeological value such as The Pointand Puke-I-Ahua in Ngaruawahia, and Wainui Reserve in Raglan.Some of our esplanade reserves also provide access to rivers,lakes and the foreshore.We have six libraries in our district with a wide range of fictionand non-fiction books, youth and young children’s books, talkingbooks, large print books and magazines. Customers can alsohire from our DVD and music collection.The libraries run reading programmes for primary schoolchildren to improve literacy and comprehension. And there isaccess to internet and a number of growing digital resources,such as reference databases.We have 25m swimming pools located in Huntly, Tuakau andNgaruawahia, with the Huntly pool has recently upgraded/converted to an indoor facility. These facilities have additionallearner and toddlers pools and provide a mixture of swimminglanes and recreational use.There are 18,193 library members in the Waikato District.Services are provided in Huntly (membership of 6,223),Ngaruawahia (membership of 4,570), Raglan (membership of3,516), Te Kauwhata (membership of 1,487) and Tuakau (2,266).A library is also provided at Meremere with reduced hours.Community libraries are managed by volunteers to provideaccess to limited printed resources such as books andmagazines and are located at Port Waikato, Te Akau, andPerrin Park Retirement Village.