Call for council to support sport

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 10, Issue 446, 28 July 1992, Page 1

Call for council to support sport

The council should spend more on helping sports groups, not less, Ruapehu Mayor Garrick Workman suggested last week. He was speaking during a discussion of a policy formulation document on recovering costs of maintenance of sports fields on recreation domains in the district. "Shouldn't we be a bit more pro-active in this area - shouldn't we be spending more to encourage sports groups and encourage

healthy lifestyles?" asked the mayor of his fellow councillors. He said the district was suffering greatly from the problems of unemployment and other social ills and encouraging sport would be a way to combat those problems. The council' s officers had asked the councillors to consider their document on forming a policy on recreation reserves. There were a number of anomalies in the way reserves were administered, with some

sports groups renting sports fields and paying towards the maintenance of them, while other sports groups paid nothing, the council heard. The council's officers were by-and-large asking for support for setting a policy to recover costs of maintaining reserves to standards specified by particular sports codes, which added to council's costs. Council general manager Cliff Houston Turn to page 2

Recreation reserves review

From page 1 said if the council wanted to build more costs into the budget, that was fine, but it was a question of telling the officers which direction they wanted to go. Asked how much the charges would involve, council property officer Alan Low said the council could recover up to $10,000 from various sports groups. Asked how much the council recovered in such costs at present, he said about $500. Cr Ken Malcolm said he was concerned that sports clubs such as his local area polocrosse club, that had worked and raised money to improve their own sports facilities, would be asked to pay rent and other charges. He said the policy would place exorbitant costs on such groups. Mr Low said it was not intended that such groups would pay more under the policy. The clause Mr Malcolm was concerned about specifically, was "Where existing leases or licences to occupy do not include in the provisions a requirement that the lessee be responsible for the payment of the rates and charges, those requirements are to

be included in the negotiated renewals, or to be included in any new leases issued." But Mr Low said that clause was included so that council could levy rates and charges in the event of a club obtaining a liquor licence. Cr Bill Penny asked why council should bother with all the administration costs associated with formulating the policy. Mr Low said the officers needed a policy to work to so that anomalies could be ironed out. Mayor Workman said the policy should not stop people working for better sports facilities. "If a local community wants to raise funds to improve their facility they should be free to do so and should be encouraged to do so. They shouldn't have to worry about extra charges from the council," he said. Council general manager Cliff Houston said what the officers wanted from council at this stage was if there were any violent objections to the policy proposals or if it needed expansion. He said from there they could prepare a proper policy document.

Cr Snow asked what the council' s definition of children's sports activities would be (the policy would see children's sports groups exempt from any charges). Mr Houston said the council would negotiate with individual sports groups to ascertain their percentage of children's activities. Cr Cosford asked how far the policy would extend, pointing out that some sports groups could still be disadvantaged. He cited the Taumarunui Indoor Bowls Club which paid rent for the council hall they use for their sport. "There are definite anomalies," said Cr Penny. "There are some groups paying rent and paying maintenance for their fields, while others pay nothing at all." "We want to be seen to be fair to everybody in this," said Cr Malcolm. "We've got to look a bit further afield on this," said Mr Workman. "Social problems are not directly our responsibility but if we don't do something we continue to suffer the consequences."