Wellington councillors’ pet projects: Will they budge?

Monday, 21 October 2024

A swimming pool, a sports field and a skate park.

All could be on the chopping block in the upcoming Wellington City Council long-term plan amendment. But are councillors willing to swing the axe on their near and dear? Or will suburban warfare prevail?

After the Wellington Airport shares sale fell through, the council is looking to find $500 million of debt headroom to mitigate the city’s insurance risk.

Mayor Tory Whanau said selling ground leases and carbon credit holdings were being investigated as options and, while several councillors have said it will not reach the point of cutting community projects, Whanau also said “everything is on the table”.

Something has to give and there are several projects in the possible firing line including the 99-year-old Khandallah Pool which the council decided to save earlier this year at a cost of $7.5m.

Diane Calvert, who campaigned to save the pool, said she was willing to sacrifice it as a last resort if that would genuinely save the city's books.

Calvert said cuts to the 'big stuff' - transport projects - were what was needed.

Ray Chung, who had the Khandallah Pool in his Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward, questioned if it was worth saving a pool nobody actually went to, but there should at least be a plan to get more people using it. He also wanted to see social housing handed to central government to save money.

The $13.2m investment into draining and replacing the Grenada North sports ground with artificial turf could be on the chopping block.

For Tony Randle, if keeping it afloat meant voting to cut other projects like the Kilbirnie Skate Park, he would do it, however, community projects were higher priority for him than those such as the Golden Mile or the Zero Waste Strategy.

Ben McNulty said the sports ground was the “absolute priority” for his community and a “bad taste” had been left after it was proposed to be cut last year, but he was willing to scale back its costs if necessary.

He expressed concerns over there being no official advice over next steps, meaning discussions on cuts were “extremely hypothetical” in the absence of this advice.

Geordie Rogers said his three no-gos were social housing, transport projects like the Golden Mile and water.

“I don't think we're going to solve the issues the city faces by cutting funding to things like social housing or transit options.”

But public consultation was important, and while some things were non-negotiable at the time he was elected, they were in an environment that continued to change.

He was willing to hold off on upgrades to projects like the Khandallah Pool or the Kilbirnie Skate Park for a future council with more ability to spend.

Council approved $5.64m of capital funding to go towards the skate park.

Teri O’Neill, who proposed the park, said in a last-case scenario where councillors fought over pet projects, she hoped to see an equal amount of cuts per ward.

Tim Brown identified social housing as his pet issue and was not willing to reduce the amount of social housing provided but was keen to look into finding savings within it.

Rebecca Matthews said every councillor should be willing to make adjustments to the budget that were best for everyone, not just in their ward.

“We are now in a position where we have to make hard decisions quickly,” she said.

While she was adamantly against selling social housing, she said if the council could find savings that did’t harm tenants, they should look into it.

Iona Pannett said while she would be willing to see the Golden Mile value engineered, she did not want the second spine - a bus priority network along the harbour quays - seeing any cuts.

Nicola Young campaigned on cutting unnecessary spending and Sarah Free said councillors needed to be open to anything being removed.