‘Mean cuts’ to pools and libraries not popular with community or councillors

Monday, 12 February 2024

The Khandallah Pool grassed over; $5-an-hour parking in suburban shopping centres; more graffiti and potholes; no New Year’s Eve fireworks; the City to Sea bridge torn down.

This is the not-so-bright future on the way as the Wellington City Council looks for another round of cuts to keep the next rates increase below 20%.

On Thursday councillors will consider a suite of cost-cutting measures affecting pools and libraries, although the closure of two suburban libraries is not planned. A document mix-up on Friday saw the Wellington City Council mistakenly upload a draft agenda signalling the closure of the Brooklyn and Wadestown libraries to save on funds.

While those libraries will remain open, other cost-cutting measures are on the table.

Two facilities – the Wadestown Community Centre and Arapaki Library and Service Centre – would close down. Every suburban library other than Johnsonville would face a reduction in hours equivalent to one day a week. Both council-run annual fireworks displays would be cancelled.

Pools were in the firing line, with yet another plan to shutter the Khandallah Pool, closures one day a week at Karori, a drastic reduction in hours at Tawa Pool, and a two-month shorter season at Thorndon.

“Pools and libraries are core services of the council. … They’re the reason we pay rates. They should be last to be cut,” said Diane Calvert. She thought communities across the city would be up in arms about the plan.

“We shouldn’t upset Wellingtonians by making mean cuts when there are much bigger spending items to look at,” Calvert said.

She had personally been advocating for the Khandallah Pool upgrade for a long time, but thought the current proposal had been over-engineered and was too expensive.

Staff noted the $11.7m build cost for the upgraded pool would push the ratepayer subsidy per swim across every pool from $25 to at least $60.

In Tawa the council’s proposal is to cut the pool opening hours in half, from 99 hours a week to 48 hours a week. To do this the pool would close on Fridays, with opening times of 11am to 7pm from Monday to Thursday and 9am to 5pm on the weekend.

Tawa Swimming Club president Julian Hughes said the proposal had come out of nowhere and would be the end of the club after 53 years. The club had just signed its contract for the year with the council, but now that was in question.

“I don’t think we could operate with the reduced hours. At one level this is existential for the club.”

The reduced hours would take out at least half of the club’s sessions, especially the early morning sessions for competitive swimmers.

The Karori Pool, home to the Pirates Swim Team, was also up for closure for one day a week. “All for about $200,000. It’s a ludicrous austerity option,” Hughes said.

The northern suburbs were “a bit picked on” in the proposal, said councillor Ben McNulty. As well as the pool hours there were proposals to introduce metered parking in the three main centres of Newlands, Tawa and Johnsonville – every shopping centre in the north other than Churton Park.

Metered parking, at a rate of $5 per hour, was also proposed in the centres of Island Bay and Kilbirnie while other suburban centre such as Karori would continue as normal. Parking charges would also be introduced for motorbikes in the central city.

Committee chair Rebecca Matthews stressed that the cuts were just a proposal, and some were unlikely to succeed at the council table. Personally, she would not be supporting hour reductions for pools or libraries.

“It’s difficult to find further savings that will get majority support,” she said.

The council had been hunting for potential savings for months. The obvious places, including lower funding for depreciation and savings across the council’s operations, had already been targeted.

As well as the changes to services, the draft Long-Term Plan includes $1.7b of funding for water infrastructure, selling the airport shares to establish a fund for use in the event of a natural disaster, and an array of new bins including a weekly organic collection.

On Thursday the council will vote on the draft to go out for public consultation.

Forecast rates increases for the next five years, if all cuts are approved

2024: 15.4% (17% including the sludge levy)

2025: 11.8% (14.6% including the sludge levy)

2026: 12.5% (16.3% including the sludge levy)

2027: 5.7% (10.2% including the sludge levy)

2028: 5.3% (9.6% including the sludge levy)