Retirees good for growth

years.’’

He said growing numbers of people with free time meant increased demand for a broad range of services.

‘‘Horowhenua District Council is supportive of those new models of retirement living,’’ he said.

Summerset group chief executive officer Julian Cook said they identified opportunities in the area early on.

The group run retirement villages in Palmerston North, Whanganui and Levin with expansion planned for Levin.

He said there were good opportunities in the region and around the country.

‘‘Statistics New Zealand say numbers of older people over 75 will continue to grow until 2068.

‘‘There is so much demand sometimes we can’t keep up,’’ he said.

‘‘At the moment 12 to 13 per cent of people over the age of 75 live in a retirement village.

‘‘In 1998 the percentage was only five per cent,’’ he said.

He said the villages provided an economic boost to regions.

‘‘We are really proud of our villages in the Manawatu/ Whanganui region,’’ he said.

HenleyHutchings partner Geoff Henley helped produce the recently released Manawatu/ Whanganui regional growth study, which identified opportunities to develop community based services over the next 20 years.

Hutchings said the services would help provide care in locations that allowed older people to continue to live in the community.He said Levin could become a lifestyle centre as well as a services centre. A Bulls woman has been reunited with her lost bunny that she feared had been stolen after he was posted back though a cat door by two young girls.

Amber Chauval, 20, said she was thrilled to have her ‘‘boy’’ home.

Chauval’s ‘‘fur baby’’ Theo, a miniature lop eared rabbit, went missing from her Bulls home on Sunday.

His disappearance prompted her to scour the streets in search of him, as well as notifying police, SPCA and vets.

Theo was locked in a hutch that