Sports dispute goes grassroots
An Auckland politician is slamming the arrangement of a new community sports provider in the south following a major funding stoush.
Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Daniel Newman says he has no confidence in the appointment of Community Leisure Management (CLM) as the new delivery partner for sport in South Auckland.
It takes the place of Counties Manukau Sport (CMS) which recently lost its contract with government funding provider Auckland Sport & Recreation (Aktive) after failing to reach an agreement.
Newman says he is ‘‘alarmed and appalled’’ at the situation and believes grassroots sport in South Auckland will suffer.
‘‘CLM manages facilities for councils. This partnership is less than ambitious and does not bode well for my constituents in Manurewa and Papakura,’’ he says.
Newman says CMS has been snubbed after a ‘‘27-year track record of service delivery’’ in the area.
‘‘Where did Aktive get its mandate to treat the communities of Counties Manukau in this way?’’ Newman says.
Aktive formed as a charitable trust organisation in 2012 and con- tinues to give money to Auckland’s other regional sports trusts (RSTs). This includes Harbour Sport, Sport Waitakere, Sport Auckland and a range of other providers who apply for the government sourced funding.
However, a dispute between CMS and Aktive came to a head in July with a joint statement saying the two organisations were parting ways. In the statement, Aktive chief executive Sarah Sandley says the organisation is focused on addressing ‘‘declining participation’’ in Auckland community sport.
‘‘This new approach requires some changes in the ways RSTs work and which groups they focus on and, unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreement with CMS to continue with them as a delivery partner,’’ Sandley says.
CLM takes on the new role as a ‘‘highly credible entity’’, she says.
CMS chairman Nick Fletcher says the organisation, which had run sporting programmes in more the 80 schools in the south, will continue with ‘‘a much broader mandate supporting the difficult social, health, education and economic challenges facing our people’’.