Shaun Lines Submission
95 Havelock Road
Havelock North
30 May 2008
Hastings District Council
Lyndon Road
Hastings
SUBMISSION ON PROPOSED REGIONAL SPORTS PARK
I am submitting in opposition to the proposed regional sports park.
My opposition is based upon five concerns.
Commercial Risk
First, the proposal being put forward by the Hastings Council appears to be a commercially reckless endeavour which will place the Hastings District ratepayer in a position where they carry all of the commercial risk.
I believe that Kelt Capital are the winners on all counts by enjoying fees as the councils agent, are beneficiaries of any funding that they manage to raise, and I suspect that the proposal will benefit them financially.
The reports provided seem vague and overly optimistic with little factual substance in regard to revenue streams. Unless Kelt Capital are prepared to underwrite all financial risk, and thus remove the rate payer from any further burden, I oppose any further development of this project.
Evidence of Commercial Success
I have been a strong supporter of developments within the Hastings District to revitalize economic vitality. These have included Splash Planet and the Hawke’s Bay Opera House.
Without exception, each of these ventures has failed to achieve their potential or projected financial returns and on reflection I believe that the reasons for this have been:
a. Overly optimistic projections to sell the project to the public – we kid ourselves to get it through.
b. Poor project management that has resulted in significant cost over-runs – I remember being told at the beginning that the Opera House was a $7m project and now understand it came in at closer to $16m.
c. Poor operational management of the facilities – too many managers and lack of commercially savvy people.
d. Councils reluctance to aggressively market it’s assets in a competitive marketplace – we have seen council reduce it’s advertising budgets repeatedly as it tries to balance it’s books, ensuring that no real marketing initiative is ever maintained or completed.
To date, there is no evidence that the Regional Sports Park project is in any way different, and will in my opinion also be a significant financial drain on the rate payer. As an owner of several properties within the district, I am also of the opinion that we pay too high rates for the level of services we receive so am opposed to significantly raising this risk.
Lack of Confirmed Regional Support
To be a truly regional enterprise, this needs to be evidenced by other significant regional players confirming publicly their financial support of this project. In my opinion, you are not really a supporter of a project unless you have some financial skin on the line.
To date, we have no evidence of real dollars being committed to this project by Napier City Council, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board or Sports Hawke’s Bay. It is widely felt that none of these parties will actually commit a significant amount to this project – and discussions with senior council officers from these other councils suggest that this venture is highly unlikely to gain major financial support, as it clearly competes with their own facilities.
Lack of Comparative Analysis of Alternative Approaches to Health
With a changing community awareness of sustainability and travel cost issues, most developed western communities are in fact moving away from the ‘big development’ approach to sport and recreation. We are seeing a move back to community facilities where locals can walk or cycle to their ‘local’ and engage in low cost activities.
These are the tenants of community development (actually building the people not facilities) and feedback from other professionals within this sector in other Councils suggests that the officers of Hastings District Council as a whole are recreation focused rather than community development focused. That explains why they are promoting a large facility rather than active programmes as are being promoted by Manukau City with their ‘Field of Dreams’ project.
The focus on facilities rather than people is a significant question for our community to consider and the tension between the two views is healthy. At this point, it would appear that the Hastings District Council is moving in a significantly different direction to the majority of local bodies within New Zealand and there is no real comparative research to confirm whether they are right or wrong.
This is a significant issue when we are looking at a project that will cost in excess of $50m and the Hastings District Council is duty bound to undertake this research if it is to meet its responsibilities in acting in the best interests of ratepayers.
No genuine options for the delivery of sport and related social benefits have been offered to the public, suggesting that council has a one option approach to the issue of community health and recreation. Sports and health officials have been asked to endorse the only option that has been placed before them without being given any alternatives to consider, and this runs counter to the councils claim of consulting in an open and unbiased manner.
Who Will Benefit?
The council has proposed that this project will benefit the whole Hawke’s Bay community. This is an outrageous claim and even as someone who enjoys playing and watching sport, I can see that the Regional Sports Park will only benefit a select few.
This is because:
1. Who – The selected sports are really only fringe sports with a small number of active participants. While I am a cyclist, I don’t think many will actually use a veledrome – we prefer to ride on the road or through forests.
This seems to be a similar prospect for the other sport codes that are
being touted, and is along the same lines as assuming that all drivers will
buy a Citroen (a vehicle that appeals only to the lunatic fringe). Irrational!
2. Cost – research with groups who have been briefed by the consultants / council suggests that no-one has been talking about the costs of using the new facilities. That may be because you don’t know, but as a betting man it is my assessment that every group will face significant increases to the costs of facility hire.
It is a simple economic principle that usage is a function of cost – the more it costs – the less people will use it. On this basis alone, it is likely that the Regional Sports Park will actually reduce the activity within the region.
3. The old facilities – we already have a good range of sports amenities within the district. The councils own assessments suggest that there are varying levels of usage of these with many needing active promotion to get good usage levels (and council has no funds to actively promote these so the question remains how they will find the funding to promote the new facility).
The question needs to be asked about what will happen to all of these facilities if the Regional Sports Park proceeds – do we sell them to developers? do we change their uses? do we let them continue to deteriorate? Or shall we just leave them to the taggers?
Conclusion
It is a matter of public record that I (and my businesses) have been strong advocates for the Hastings District. I love it here and made a conscious choice to live and work in this area. We support economic development and encourage many organisations and groups to be active in building a strong and healthy community.
I also want to support a sports strategy that’s well-considered and, in today’s slowing economic climate, less risky and costly.
Thank you for the opportunity to make and speak to this submission.
Yours sincerely
Shaun Lines
Comments
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Why does it seem necessary to have the golden arches as the gateway to Havelock North?…the first thing people will see on arrival to the village!!! Is this the reply to clive having a delightful sculpture for their enterence? Lets get real here and come up with something more suitable..there is a real chance to make something special rather that a commercial entity of fast food…go to Hastings for a rubber burger!
Now HN will just look like any other town….lets put burger king and kfc on the other roundabouts!!! slip a subway in too!!
Grrrrrrrr!!!!