Arts Centre secures ratepayer funding but bosses are put on notice

Tuesday, 25 June 2024

The Arts Centre will receive council funding for the next 10 years .

Christchurch’s Arts Centre will get ratepayer funding for the next 10 years, but it is on notice to become more financially sustainable.

Christchurch City Council decided on Tuesday, following strong public support, to give the Arts Centre $750,000 for the next two years and then $500,000 for the following eight years.

This is on top of a previously decided $110,000 grant in 2024-25 and 2025-26.

However, it falls well short of the money the Arts Centre asked the council for in March.

The Arts Centre originally said it needed between $1.83 million and $2.5m annually, otherwise, the trust would fold and the council would be forced to take the centre on.

Council interim chief executive Mary Richardson said council staff had advised her the Arts Centre could manage with $830,000.

Cr Sam MacDonald said Arts Centre Trust chairman Murray Dickinson told him on the weekend, the centre was not going to become insolvent on July 1 with that level of council funding. However, it would always like more.

MacDonald implored the Arts Centre Trust to “step up” and look at the organisation’s management structure.

Orana Wildlife Park chief executive Lynn Anderson earlier this year said the park needed up to $1.5m in public funding per year.

“I don’t think they are prepared to accept the challenges and they need to.”

The council also decided to have staff work with the Arts Centre to develop a sustainable funding model and asset management plan and report back within three years.

Dickinson said on Tuesday, the funding offer from the council fell short of what was necessary to retain the The Arts Centre operations in its current form, but it was enough to sustain it in the short-term.

“Trustees and staff express their gratitude to the thousands of supporters of Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre who made submissions to the council.”

Dickinson said the trust would take some time to consider its next steps.

Cr Kelly Barber criticised the centre’s publicity campaign for funding.

“I feel like they brought a tank to a cup of tea. It could have been a cup of tea if they had taken a different approach.’

Barber said it was never about whether the council funded the organisation or not.

Some 59% (4100) of the 7000 public submissions received on the council’s 10-year budget, the Long Term Plan, were urging the council to fund the Arts Centre.

The Christchurch Santa Parade held for the first time last year at the Canterbury Agricultural Park, will get $125,000 in council funding for the next three years.

The decision is one of many being made on Tuesday as the council meets to finalise the LTP, before officially signing it off on Thursday.

The council also approved $510,000 each year for the next three years for Orana Park.

Orana Park chief executive Lynn Anderson said earlier this year the park needed up to $1.5m in public funding per year (starting with $500,000 in the first year) to meet its operating shortfall, and that she feared for the park’s “inevitable demise” without it.

The council has earlier decided to conduct a business review for Orana Park.

The Santa Parade will be given $125,000 each year for the next three years.

The council has also decided to charge for parking in Hagley Park during the week and on the weekend. People will be charged $4.60 for three hours.

Mayor Phil Mauger says the council is in a relatively strong position.

The council will push ahead with the controversial Akaroa wastewater scheme at a cost of $93.5m.

About $3.7m is being bought forward to the first three years of the LTP to build a Shirley Community Centre, to replace the one that was demolished following the earthquakes.

A Climate Resilience Fund will be created, which could contribute toward the cost of moving or raising infrastructure impacted by climate change.

The council has also agreed to double the amount of money it was spending on its coastal adaptation planning programme from 2025/26, adding another $1.8m to the budget.

The city’s civic leaders and council staff have been working for more than a year to develop the LTP, with countless briefings, many of which have been open to the public for the first time.

The proposed rates increase is sitting at 9.95%, but the final figure will not be known until later on Tuesday .

At the beginning of the process last year, the council was proposing a rates increase of nearly 20%.

The stadium Te Kaha was responsible for about 2.2 percentage points of the increase.

Mayor Phil Mauger opened the deliberations by saying the LTP is the council’s contract with the community for the next 10 years.

“We will not love everything in the plan. Some of us will want more. Some of us will want less and we won’t have got everything right.”

But, he said the council had debated ideas, listened to the community and debated again.

“Any plan is going to be the result of the greatest consensus among the many competing views.”

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