Another demand on ratepayers’ money

Christchurch’s tourism, events and economic development agency wants an extra $1.4 million of ratepayers’ money to create a new fund to attract events, conferences and establish a film office in the city.

ChristchurchNZ has asked the Christchurch City Council for the money on top of the $10.2m already budgeted for the organisation each year for the next 10 years.

The council has included the

$1.4m seed fund request as a question to the public in its draft Long Term Plan (LTP) consultation document. The money has not yet been included in the budget. A decision would be made following community consultation on the draft LTP, which kicks off today.

Christchurch’s residential ratepayers are facing a 5.5 per cent rate increase in the 2018-19 financial year and the $1.4m fund will increase the that by 0.3 per cent.

ChristchurchNZ received

$10.58m from the council this financial year.

ChristchurchNZ chief executive Joanna Norris said the money was to promote international education, attract and bid for major events and conferences, and to establish a film office in Christchurch to allow the city to capture a share of the national and global industry.

About half the fund, $750,000, would be used to help the organisation and council-owned events company Vbase bid for major events and be competitive with other cities.

‘‘Other cities are aggressive in bidding for events on behalf of their communities, we want to be competitive. Christchurch deserves this,’’ Norris said.

Events would include major concerts, sporting and cultural festivals. Norris said Christchurch needed to invest in major events if it was to be competitive with other regions.

A Film Office business case, completed last year, found Christchurch would be able to gain a share of New Zealand’s $3.2 billion film economy, if it had a dedicated film office, she said.

Vbase chief executive Darren Burden said other cities – including Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin – had targeted funds they could use to attract events and without one, it was hard for Christchurch to compete.

The money was often used to promote the event across the country to increase ticket sales.

Burden said Christchurch also struggled to compete with other cities including Dunedin because its venues were smaller.

Vbase put in a bid for an Ed Sheeran concert this year, but lost out to Dunedin because it could not provide the same venue capacity and there were no dollars associated with the bid, Burden said.

‘‘Bringing a major event to the city has really positive spin-offs.’’

Last year’s Bruce Springsteen concert was estimated to have poured $10m into the city’s economy, Burden said.

Late last year, ChristchurchNZ said the city had a ‘‘weak overall’’ events portfolio, but it would not be able to improve the situation within ‘‘existing funding levels’’.