STADIUM FUNDING BOOSTED TO $700K A YEAR

Invercargill City councillors have agreed to commit $700,000 to ILT Stadium Southland annually for the next three years.

The council had a $400,000 annual agreement locked in with the stadium.

However, the Southland Indoor Leisure Centre Charitable Trust, which owns the stadium, asked the council to increase its annual funding to $700,000 to ensure it had the money available to carry out a long-term maintenance plan.

For the past three years, councillors have agreed to a one-off increase of $300,000. The stadium trustees returned this year asking for a three-year funding boost to provide some certainty.

At a finance and policy committee meeting last month, councillors recommended that the council consult the public on the funding increase as part of the Annual Plan.

However, at a full council meeting yesterday, councillor Nobby Clark put a motion forward that the council should enter a three-year agreement to fund the stadium at $700,000 a year, without going through the Annual Plan process.

The council’s acting finance director, Dave Foster, asked why they would commit to three years at $700,000 at this point.

‘‘The question is that given where we are in terms of a planning cycle . . . and in terms of such a significant item which is 0.5 per cent of rates, why would you make a decision like that a month prior to commencing public consultation?’’ Foster said.

Clark responded: ‘‘Why not? It’s a major piece of infrastructure . . . If we do nothing else, well, we do that at our peril – it will come back to bite us.’’

Councillor Darren Ludlow supported the funding increase for another year, but felt the council should consult the public before committing to three years.

Lesley Soper was the sole councillor to vote against the motion. She pointed to the fact 52 per cent of submitters opposed the annual increase in stadium funding last time the council consulted the public.

‘‘Either we are serious about consulting with our public . . . or we are not. We’ve consulted on this and the public came back with an answer.’’

Councillor Nigel Skelt, who is also the stadium’s general manager, left the table during the discussion because of the conflict of interest.