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Christmas/New Year Hours opening hours

Over the Christmas/New Year holiday season, some of our facilities will be closed or have reduced hours. 

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Swimming alert at Fitzroy Beach

Please don’t swim or gather food at Fitzroy Beach.

Testing of the water at the beach by Taranaki Regional Council on 9 December returned elevated levels of the potentially-harmful bacteria.

We’re sorry this will inconvenience people hoping to spend the weekend at Fitzroy Beach.

Check our Can I Swim page for information on other beaches.

News

NPDC and Police teaming up to keep you safe this summer

News Featured news
PUBLISHED: 12 DEC 2025
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Family, fun and good times in New Plymouth district are back for the summer, and NPDC and the Police are working together to keep it that way.

With big events like the TSB Festival of Lights and concerts at the Bowl of Brooklands, great parks and some of the best beaches in the country, the district will be buzzing over the next few months.

New Plymouth Mayor Max Brough doesn’t want to see a few people’s bad behaviour ruining the summer and says there will be zero tolerance to “drunken and anti-social nonsense”.   

“We’re not putting up with any crappy behaviour in town this summer” says Mayor Max. “It makes a mess of our city and is turning people off going to places like Puke Ariki.”

Mayor Max says the issues have prevailed for too long despite many efforts to assist NPDC.

“We’ve got too much invested in our district to let a few people ruin it for everyone.  Ratepayers’ money has gone into making our city centre a better place, such as work to open up the Huatoki, set to start in the new year, and creating safe spaces and supporting projects providing storage for rough sleepers’ property.”

NPDC is also bringing back its City Safe Compliance Officers for 12 months from 13 January following positive feedback from local businesses last year, to work alongside Police to make sure the celebrations stay peaceful. 

New Zealand Police Acting Taranaki Area Commander Inspector Darin Haenga said officers would continue to enforce the alcohol bylaw which bans public drinking in the city centre, central Waitara, as well as Pukekura Park outside of exempted events.

“The summer holiday period brings with it a few more alcohol related challenges. We will be taking a zero-tolerance approach, and any time we identify a ban being breached, we will be taking appropriate action,” said Haenga.

NPDC’s three City Safe Compliance Officers will work closely with local support agencies, the YMCA and the Police. If required they can trespass individuals from private property, remove possessions and enforce Freedom Camping Bylaws.  

 

Caption: Inspector Darin Haenga and Mayor Max plan to tackle bad behaviour in the city centre.

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Page last updated: 10:53am Fri 12 December 2025

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