Council inches towards confirming rates increase during marathon meeting

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Funding for the Arts Centre is one of a number of decisions made by Christchurch City Council on Tuesday.

Christchurch’s Arts Centre has secured ratepayer funding for the next 10 years, as the city council inches closer to confirming a rates increase of about 10%.

Several funding decisions were made at a marathon Christchurch City Council meeting on Tuesday as the council raced to confirm its 10-year budget, the long-term plan (LTP).

The meeting started at 9.30am and was still going past 8pm as councillors worked through 25 recommendations and 75 amendments put forward by individual councillors.

The rates increase will be confirmed on Thursday, but was sitting at close to 10%.

The Arts Centre will get $750,000 annually 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

Orana Park will get $510,000 annually for the next three years and the Santa Parade will get $125,000 each year for the next three years.

The Christchurch City Council is about to start charging for people to park inside Hagley Park.

A Climate Resilience Fund will be created, which could contribute toward the cost of moving or raising infrastructure impacted by climate change and is expected to amass $127 million over the next 10 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.

The controversial $93.5m Akaroa wastewater scheme will progress.

Owners of unhosted short-stay accommodation – where the owner does not live on site – who rent their properties out for more than 60 nights a year, will be charged a “business differential” rate. This means for the average house value of $750,000, the rates would increase by about $2273 per year.

The council agreed to double the amount it was spending on its coastal adaptation planning programme from 2025-26, adding $1.8m to the budget annually.

The money granted to the Arts Centre falls well short of what the organisation asked the council for in March.

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

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

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

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.

In response to the council’s decision, Arts Centre Trust chairperson Murray Dickinson said the funding offer fell short of what was necessary to retain the operation 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 Arts Centre had agreed to conduct a review of operations, including deferring maintenance, which was currently $970,000 a year.

“The review therefore needs to happen with some urgency before the end of 2024.”

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.

Councillor Sam MacDonald implored the Arts Centre Trust to “step up” and look at its management structure.

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

Councillor 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 LTP urged the council to fund the Arts Centre.

Santa Parade director Jason Reekers said the $125,000 in annual funding gave the event the certainty it had been pleading for, for years.

“This was not only a vote for the parade, but it was also a vote for all the children of Christchurch.”

Other decisions include $3.7m bought forward to the first three years of the LTP to build a Shirley Community Centre, to replace the one demolished following the earthquakes.

The council will also look at creating a new dog park in southwest Christchurch.

Mayor Phil Mauger opened the deliberations by saying the LTP was 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.”

No decisions were made on the council’s transport amendments, including the future of the Wheels to Wings cycleway down Harewood Rd, before The Press deadline.

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