Village Radio stalwart and board member Bonnie Leonard says the community radio station is on the edge of collapse following failed promises, an unresponsive mayor and unaffordable rent.

Bonnie Leonard.

This announced despair comes after a meeting held at the Historic Village on Thursday where Mayor Stuart Crosby discussed the village's future with stakeholders.

'We've gone through all these changes with promises, promises, promises, from the council and we've never had any direction whether it's a tourist destination, whether it's a community place. I don't know what the devil the village is supposed to be anymore,” says Bonnie.

'We've been fobbed off for years really, beyond promises, and we have been finding it considerably harder and harder being the only tenant left that is being run as a volunteer organisation.

'We have got no income and now we are being charged rent by the council. We are being charged $700 a month and that's hard to find.

'The rent has killed us. We can't meet it this month nor next month, and we are in debt and we will probably have to close.”

Village Radio has been in the village for 27 years, and is the last original Historic Village tenant from the days when the village operated as a working museum. The radio station needs foot traffic to generate income and the village's current focus on community and social welfare groups is not helping it or the retail tenants.

Bonnie, a Village Radio board member, confronted Mayor Stuart Crosby about Village Radio's future at a meeting between the council and villagers on Thursday.

'He didn't want to know,” says Bonnie.

'He said we had internal troubles at the radio which was our own fault – which is not true. It's a waste of time, banging your head against a brick wall isn't it?”

The rent was imposed two or three years ago, says Bonnie.

The 30 Village Radio volunteers have since attempted fundraising ventures, but find raising money for museum piece communications gear is not glamorous.

'We would be about 100 places behind kids with cancer, people with disabilities and all those sort of things.

'We've tried fundraising, we tried all different organisations we have been turned down – ‘Very sorry we know you do a good job and so on, but...'

'Which is really sad. We've been there such a long time and had a really valuable input into the community, and a lot of elderly people just love us as a lifeline. So, there we are.

'We are all feeling quite despondent because there are 30 volunteers that give their time as we run seven days a week. We have quite a lot of tourists that call in who think it is fabulous. In fact, recently one American tourist wanted to buy us.”

Village Radio has been waiting to see which way the village is going to go, says Bonnie. 'There was a message that it was going to go back to being a working museum, tourist attraction which would be a wonderful thing.

'It could be a magical place, and it's a wonderful destination for jazz festival things like that and it should be humming, and full of lovely little ‘boutiquey' things.

Cromwell, a central Otago town of 4000 people is building a historic village to attract tourists, says Bonnie.

The tourists dropped off at Tauranga's village from the cruise ship this week were just wandering around.

'Poor things, they were wondering what they hell they had come to, I think.

'It needs to be managed properly and taken out of the council's hands. I think they would like to set a match to it, and never see it again quite frankly.

'They do not appreciate that it was all given to them. People donated the buildings, they donated time, they donated money to get that off the ground. It was a real city project and the council had very little input. It was all given to them and as a result of course, they don't appreciate it.”

Mayor Stuart Crosby was in the Waikato Friday morning and could not be contacted for comment.