Background
In June 2022 several local sporting codes came together with College Sport Wellington to form the Affordable Sports for Greater Wellington group. The group lobbied candidates in the local body elections to commit to a review of sport fees across five Wellington territorial authorities.
The group was concerned about the affordability of sport, particularly for children and families and was seeking a review of user’s fees and charges for sports codes. In May 2023, a Notice of Motion was moved by Councillor Abdurahman seeking to conduct an independent review into the Council’s sport field and facilities fees and charges.
It was agreed that a collaborative approach working with key stakeholders and participating Councils to develop a regional approach to this project was the most appropriate way forward. The working group consists members of the sporting community, council and Nuku Ora and is chaired by an independent consultant Alan Isaac.
Final report and our actions
Review of fees for sports grounds and facilities in the greater Wellington region (16.4MB PDF)
We will continue to be an active member of the Nuku Ora Regional Sports forum and the Regional Spaces and Places forum to continue to engage with the sporting community of which the monitoring of actions will remain a key agenda item to work together on. Both Nuku Ora and the Council are reliant on each other to deliver on the desired community outcomes when it comes to sport.
The Council are committed to a project costings exercise to provide greater transparency across both the type of sport asset and sporting code within the sports fields area. This project is currently being scoped to be able to provide greater transparency around how much it costs to manage and maintain our sports fields and how the budget is allocated and spent. It will look at costs from two viewpoints:
- A sporting code view over a sporting season. For example, football during the winter season
- Site-specific. For example, we can see the cost to maintain Miramar Park, regardless of the codes playing on it.
We will continue collaborating with regional territorial authorities (TA) on aligning fees, charges, and review timings where feasible, including benchmarking comparable services, while also delivering on Te Whai Oranga Pōneke - Open Space and Recreation Strategy (17MB PDF), particularly Action P6's investigation into sport and recreation fees, decision-making transparency, and equity of provision within 3-5 years.
Contact us
Email: ben.keat@wcc.govt.nz