Residents fight to save Avondale market grounds, anger over secrecy

Wednesday, 10 September 2025

A residents’ group has formed to stop a national racing body from selling a much loved community asset to developers.

Jaclyn Bonnici of the Avondale Racecourse Alliance said at a public meeting on Tuesday the group had obtained a legal opinion from a King’s Counsel they intend to present to Racing Minister Winston Peters.

It cites a requirement in the Racing Act for the minster to consider any proposal from the community for use of “surplus” assets.

The Avondale Racecourse, home to the iconic Sunday markets and council-leased sports grounds, has been caught up in a national consolidation of the horse racing industry which has seen venues across the country “transferred” to New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) to allow for their sale.

The new group was spurred to action after it obtained under the Official Information Act plans drawn up by Fletcher Living to redevelop most of the course, prompting fears of an imminent sale.

At the meeting Bonnici presented the alliance’s alternative proposal which would see 14ha for sports fields, 5ha for native planting, 1.5ha for a potential pool and recreation centre and 3.5ha to retain the Sunday markets.

However, she warned attendees that the alliance did not currently have a seat at the negotiation table.

She said NZTR was working to come to an agreement with the Avondale Jockey Club over the transfer, but the negotiations have been secret.

A man in the crowd said that he was on the club committee and they were subject to strict confidentiality clauses and “fines of $1000” if they breached them.

“I’m not on there any more … we had a falling out,” he said.

It was understood that the jockey club wanted “a legacy park” for the community as a bottom line, but would need to find a way to meet NZTR’s requirement to raise funds from a sale.

Despite a deadline of June 30, an agreement has yet to be reached.

Cynthia Crosse, a member of the alliance, revealed that some of her membership had been allowed to attend one of the closed meetings.

“We have discovered that there is an antagonistic relationship between the jockey club and NZTR,” Crosse said.

“NZTR are not community-spirited, and in all fairness their directive is to get as much money as they can to prop up the industry which is understandable too.”

While it is understood that any deal would need to be ratified by 70% of the jockey club’s membership, if an agreement acceptable to NZTR isn’t reached it will be able to invoke the Racing Industry Act 2020 to force a deal.

“They’ve legislated for a land grab basically … and Avondale is being used as a cash cow,” said Crosse.

Added Bonnici: “I want to acknowledge there is a lot of grief over this dastardly legislation which has backed them [the jockey club] into a corner.”

She said the community couldn’t afford to wait and see if an acceptable deal would be brokered on their behalf.

The alliance, with the support of the jockey club, is now lobbying for a deal that would see part of the land “gifted” to Auckland Council, while the remainder would have to be purchased.

“This would take elected members and councillors to seriously look at a budget,” said Bonnici.

The Post has seen a letter sent by the jockey club to Auckland mayor Wayne Brown asking for the “urgent attention” of councillors on the matter.

Former Auckland councillor Ross Clow, who is running for Whau Local Board, is running his campaign on a purchase.

He told The Post the council ought to buy the land outright while it was still affordable and then undertake a rezoning process and sell part of the land for development at a much higher price.

“You could end up with a net [figure] actually not having to cost [the council] very much at all,” he said.

Sunday market manager Rob Kemp said that each week stallholders likely collectively turned about a quarter of a million dollars and its loss would be hugely felt by the community.

“We have more foot traffic than ever, because we have more apartments nearby and people are looking for good prices.

“We want compromise, not like what they’ve done at Unitec [Carrington development], destroying the whole place.

“Developers may want to take the whole place over and cover it in low-cost housing but will that do anything good for the locals?”

In a statement to The Post, NZTR said it was in “good faith negotiations”.

“We have no further comment at this time.”