‘Curly discussion’ coming up on South Waikato asset sales

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Rumours the South Waikato’s council wants to sell off or close down public facilities - including libraries, pools and the Tokoroa airfield - are just rumours, according to the district’s deputy mayor.

However, deputy mayor Hamish Daine said confusion over a series of “signals” made in the council’s Long-Term Plan (LTP) consultation document had seen some locals “jumping to conclusions” about what those signals mean.

In its LTP for 2024-2034 the council said it was “making a general move, where practical and reasonable, away from rates to charging individuals who benefit directly from the services”.

The council also stated it wants to “rationalise facilities, buildings and land” and is undertaking “a critical analysis of surplus land and buildings”.

“We cannot afford several similar facilities across all our towns,” it said.

“We need to build, refurbish or develop and maintain single fit-for-purpose modern facilities that serve the entire district.

“In this regard, council will be investigating the Tīrau pool, Putāruru Transfer Station, community halls, library and community hub and the Tokoroa airfield.”

The council stated there were “several available options” for those sites, including setting up a Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) to own and manage its property portfolio.

Daine said there had been rumours circulating the council had already made up its mind and would dispose of the facilities mentioned in its LTP, but that was not the case, he said.

“There’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of people making assumptions.

“Yes, those things are signalled in the plan but it’s not ‘the’ plan.

“This is one of those curly discussions which we need to have because we want to know what people actually think.

“Last year when rates went up 18.5%, we were asked by people to try and find more savings … and many people said they did not want rates to subsidise the airfield in Tokoroa for the few people who use it.”

Daine said the airfield site also included the local kart and motocross tracks and the council had received “constant feedback” that users were not comfortable with council management of the airfield.

“But it does not say anywhere in the consultation document that we want to sell the airfield, the kart track or the motocross track.

“There may be people out there who want us to sell that land - we want to hear from them too.”

Tokoroa airfield user Bruce Simpson, who uses the site for remote controlled aircraft and drone flying, and whose YouTube videos at the airfield have been viewed more than 100 million times, said he’d support the sale of the airfield.

“We do live in a socially and economically deprived community and I do feel guilty that others pay for my leisure time activities through their rates.”

Simpson said he had been approached by a group who wanted to offer a seven-figure sum to buy the airfield, but had not received any response from the council.

“The airfield is a drain on council resources … I think the best way forward is to sell it to a business that can operate it properly.”

Council chief executive Susan Law said they were “testing the water” to find out how many facilities the council could afford to run, what facilities were valued by the community, and whether there were facilities beyond their use by date.

“We signalled last year that in order for the council to get back into the black, the council will still need to make some hard decisions.

“We want to be totally transparent that these are the types of decisions that may need to be made by council over the life of the LTP.

“None of these are done deals – they are signals.