7000 submit on spending
An extraordinary number of Ōtautahi residents have told the Christchurch City Council where ratepayer money should be spent over the next 10 years.
Nearly 7000 people submitted feedback on the council’s draft long-term plan (LTP) – about three times as many as in 2021, when the last plan was created.
The high volume may be due to the number of city institutions warning they will collapse without public funding and launching campaigns for support in the last few weeks.
The Arts Centre had the most visible campaign, with Philip Aldridge, director of the Arts Centre Trust, warning it risked becoming insolvent without council funding and would need to fold.
The trust wants the council to continue funding it by $1.83 million a year, as it has done for the last three years. It would cover insurance costs ($1.2m), rates ($205,000) and other maintenance and operational costs.
Aldridge expected thousands of the submissions would be due to the slick Save The Arts Centre campaign, which was funded by sponsors and a private donation. “Fortunately, the public have spoken ... it touched a chord with the public.”
He felt optimistic about the result because the council listened to public feedback.
Another popular item people submitted on – according to a press release from the council yesterday – was Orana Wildlife Park, which made a plea for support last week.
Chief executive Lynn Anderson said it cost $5.1m a year to run the park, only 65% of which was covered by their 200,000 annual visitors. It was impossible to raise ticket prices (currently $39.50 for adults, $12.50 for children), she said, so they were requesting $3m over three years, with the long-term goal of securing $1.5m in funding per year.
The park currently received $250,000 a year in council funding (and got a $400,000 one-off grant this financial year) but Anderson said only increased public funding would “halt our inevitable demise”.
It is possible the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild team (CCRL) also captured the attention of submitters. Although CCRL had not asked the council for a specific amount of money, it announced on April 6 that the cathedral project would be mothballed if it did not generate $30m by an August board meeting.
In a press release yesterday, mayor Phil Mauger said it would be up to councillors to decide how much money was spent and where, during final deliberations. The next step in the process is for public submissions to be heard in person in May, with the council debate and final approval of the plan in June.
Mauger said a first look at the feedback suggested broad support for gifting Yaldhurst Memorial Hall to the local community (the Yaldhurst residents association is willing to save the building from demolition on its own dime, if the council gives it to them for $1), and charging absentee owners of commercial land in certain suburbs more rates.
Feedback on the council’s proposal to get rid of free car parking around parks (including Hagley Park) was mixed, as was the amount the council intended to spend on cycleways.
The council’s action (or lack of) on climate change would likely be a point of contention. On April 5 – when several dozen School Strike 4 Climate protesters refused to leave the main civic building until the mayor spoke to them – they spent their time filling out LTP feedback forms.
As it stands, the draft plan proposes an average residential household rates increase of 12.4%, or $416 a year, for the financial year beginning July 2024. Over a 10-year period, the council expected rates will rise by 57.8%, which will ensure the city’s utilities and other services are done well, and with as few loans as possible. The plan covers $16.8 billion in spending, $9.1b of which is for day-to-day services like waste collection, public facilities and recreation.
Some $480m of capital spend will go towards renewing and upgrading water networks, while $226m will be spent on road, footpath and cycleway renewals. The council has also earmarked $286m to finish Te Kaha stadium, which has a total budget of $683m.
It’s been a bruising April for many of Christchurch’s iconic landmarks, venues and events, teetering under the weight of their own financial turmoil. The Arts Centre’s management team continues to sound the threatening drumbeat of insolvency if the ratepayer doesn’t rush to their rescue. (The doommongering hasn’t stopped them frittering lavish operational sums on their multimedia “Save the Arts Centre” advertising campaign.)
Meanwhile, Ferrymead Heritage Park and Orana Wildlife Park are also seeking substantial council funding, up to $1.5 million, annually.
Last week also brought the shock postponement of the New Zealand Agricultural Show, with the Canterbury A&P Society board in a state of upheaval, if not dysfunction.
Sub-standard operating models would seem to be the common denominator across these entities.
Over many years, the city council has allowed itself to be treated like some great and benevolent provider, handing out the cash to many a passing cause. But as the business end of the long-term plan process fast approaches, the sheer clamour for fatter council grants and funding lifelines has been quite audacious, if not impertinent.
It’s essential the council stands firm and adopts a “tough love” fiscal stance, to protect the interests of all ratepayers, who are already bracing for a double-digit rates hike.
Canterbury’s signature A&P Show has a long, proud legacy of 160 years, as does Christ Church Cathedral. The church’s reinstatement leaders didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory last week, at the council briefing. I’m not convinced all the dire warnings of the cathedral, without additional public funding, being plagued by vermin, pigeons and razor-wire struck the right note.
I still believe the onus is on the church to principally self-fund the completion of the strengthening programme, which requires a $30m funding injection by the end of August.
Beyond that, local and global philanthropy is critical. But as the council briefing underscored, there’s considerable ability to rescope the project to get the price-tag back below $200m. Scrapping base-isolation for the building alone would save well north of $20m. (Baseisolation wasn’t included in the Arts Centre’s restoration, either.)
In stark contrast to these trying times for so many high-profile entities, the Catholic Bishop of Christchurch’s announcement on Sunday was a welcome breath of fresh air. Finally some new hope and humility, amid the climate of gloom.
Building a brand new cathedral on the Barbadoes St site marks a great homecoming for the Catholic diocese, given the first chapel and church were built there 160 years ago, as forerunners to the basilica.
Following December’s launch of the future cathedral consultation, Bishop Michael Gielen’s preference to return to Barbadoes St has received a ringing endorsement. The four-month-long survey has produced 85% support for Barbadoes St, with only 10% support for the now-dumped Armagh St proposal.
It was Gielen’s predecessor, Bishop Paul Martin, who wanted to thrust a new cathedral precinct closer to the heart of the city, on the riverside site. But this attention-seeking vanity project, planned to be a joint venture with Philip Carter, never won the hearts and minds.
The beauty of returning to the church’s spiritual home is the sense of space. At nearly 15,000 square metres, the Barbadoes St site, bounded by Ferry Rd and Moorhouse Ave, is two-and-a-half times larger than the Armagh St site, or the St Mary’s site on Manchester St.
Strikingly, 96% of survey respondents want the new cathedral to be a visible place of worship, with easy car parking and transport access the second-highestrated consideration at 87%. Yes, car parks matter!
Several highly-placed sources tell me that a more prominent Moorhouse Ave perspective is proposed for the cathedral. Gielen talks about the project being a “years-long journey”, with seven years to completion being the unofficial estimate.
He’s passionate about ensuring many historic elements of the gorgeous old basilica, “like the magnificent altar”, are reinstated in the new “timeless” cathedral.
It’s also grounded in being economical and self-funding, including selling the Armagh/Colombo St land that was purchased for $15m.
Pleasingly, the decision to build the new Catholic Cathedral in Barbadoes St doesn’t appear to be reliant on any expectation of securing any city or state funding. Nor should it, in these straitened times.