This is a follow up to the Race Stand Removal story we ran in January after some Roving Reporting and a few OIA's

In case people think we have a thing about saving the Race Stand, or Racing, or some type of angle with this issue, this is not where we are coming from.

We do not like wasteful spending, we do not like lack of transparency, and in this situation, we do not like how the decision making has taken place, and how decisions consulted on have changed to something completely different to what was in the 2024 Long Term Plan.

You may remember we encouraged our supporters to contact the council about the removal of the Race Stand, which they did, and for those who sent an e-mail, the Mayor (and his spin doctors) wrote back. We as the Alliance then wrote to the Council, and the Mayor wrote back to us.

Both the reply to us, and our supporters, had some bold statements and raised some questions for us, so we did a little bit of Roving Reporting and a few OIA’s.

This has turned a very small piece of information from one question in one OIA, into a picture about how the NPDC makes decisions about spending our rates. We’ll try to keep it as simple as we can.

Some of our letter to the Mayor and Council included asking:

• For a copy of the consultation document, or where at anytime, the NPDC advised the community that the Race Stand would be removed ?
• For the detailed costs for the different project that is now being undertaken in 2025.
• Who else, apart from ratepayers & renters, have actually committed funding to this project ?
• A copy of the detailed plan for the “99% recycling” of the Race Stand building.

And we finished with:
We ask that you give your community the chance to consult on the real 2025 plan, not a plan that was completely different 4 years ago.

The Mayor replied with:

• The Scope of the project in the 2024 consultation document. Less than half a page, with 3 options and a few words in a “box” for each option. NO OPTION mentioning the removal of the Race Stand.
• A copy of the information used to make a decision, which included research results.
• A 2 hour video was attached of the debate about the Hub by the councillors.
• The removal of the Race Stand was part of their agreement with the Racing Club.
• They are aiming for 99% recycling of the Race Stand when it is demolished and a special webpage will be set up for people to see how that is going.

So,
• No answer to where or when the NPDC consulted or advised the public about the Race Stand removal.
• No detailed cost break down for what is now the very different 2025 plan for the hub.
• No detail of who else is funding the project apart from ratepayers and renters.
• A lot of information about the now defunct 2024 Long Term Plan findings (as that was a completely different project in an entirely different location to what is happening in 2025).

This prompted us to consider:
1. We wondered if the Racing Club was happy for the Race Stand to be removed. So we asked them.
2. Who owns the Racecourse - so who can enter into agreements about it. We did some research.
3. There’s been a lot of talk with the new courts that people “may” come from out of town and people “may” pay to use the new courts. We wondered if the smaller version of indoor courts (The TSB Stadium) is making money, so we did an OIA.
4. We had a look at the research with the 2024 LTP and found something interesting.

We’ll start with the Racing Club response.
There is a cost to bring the Race Stand building up to the latest required maintenance level. This is a ONE OFF cost of around $300,000. The Racing Club is not in a position to pay the maintenance cost, so as part of the arrangement with the NPDC, they did not object to the Race Stand being removed and not part of their lease.

• Note here, around a $300,000 TOTAL ONE OFF COST is needed to bring the existing Race Stand, Conference Facilities and home to Taranaki Rugby up to the required maintenance level.

Some big numbers are about to follow in this story – much bigger than what would have been just one $300k maintenance cost.

So now there is a building requiring maintenance work by the NPDC, as part of the Racecourse Reserve with the latest lease agreement.

Who owns the Race Course and the buildings ?
Turns out there is legislation. The New Plymouth Racecourse Reserve Act – special legislation for the people of New Plymouth.
This legislation states that the NPDC owns the Recreation and Racecourse Reserve and this legislation states that the NPDC:
“under the New Plymouth Recreation and Racecourse Reserve Act 1959 (the 1959 Act) the land described in Schedule 1 was declared to be held by the New Plymouth District Council (the Council)
under the name of the New Plymouth Recreation and Racecourse Reserve as a reserve for the recreation of the inhabitants of the City of New Plymouth.”

We’ve attached a link for anyone who may want to see how an act of parliament protects our Racecourse Reserve for us, the people of New Plymouth.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/local/1999/0002/latest/whole.html#DLM84270

So, when the Racing Club didn’t want to/couldn’t take on the maintenance of the Race Stand, we question whether the people of New Plymouth should have been consulted about removing a building on our reserve.

The Mayor’s view in his reply to us was:
“Removal of the public stand
The decision to remove the stand was the result of discussions and mutually agreed upon between with Taranaki Racing as part of the lease agreement.”

We’re not convinced the “inhabitants” of New Plymouth have no say about what happens to buildings on their Recreation and Racecourse Reserve when an agreement is altered.

So, the NPDC has made a decision to remove the Public Race Stand. If they had decided to keep the Public Race Stand it would have cost:

• Around a $300k TOTAL ONE OFF COST to bring it up to the required maintenance level.

Will the NPDC have an income stream for the New Bigger Building with 6 indoor courts ?
The NPDC plans to put a bigger set of indoor courts, much bigger, next to the TSB Stadium which also has indoor courts, and they tell us (with vague statements over the years) that people may come from out of town and the NPDC may make money from people using these new courts.

The NPDC also tells us there is more demand than supply for indoor courts which is why they need to build a new facility.

We know the TSB Stadium has basketball events, some bigger audience shows, Home Shows, exercise classes – there is a reasonable amount of activity at the TSB Stadium. So is it making any money ?

We did an OIA to see if the TSB Stadium is making a profit.

Turns out it is NOT making a profit. The NPDC counts income and costs for the TSB Stadium and Bowl of Brooklands together, so they can’t specify exactly for each venue, but in general these 2 entities lose around $500K a year. Last year it was a $560k loss.

So the NPDC wants to build a MUCH BIGGER facility, to add to an existing facility, which does NOT HAVE ENOUGH DEMAND to make a profit, or even come close to breaking even ?

In this TSB Stadium OIA reply the NPDC told us – that “Officers are comfortable that the level of operational budget proposed in the LTP is sufficient to ensure effective operation of the hub”. There was no detail of that operating budget.

So, we wrote back and asked for the operating budget detail that was in the 2024 Long Term Plan.

We’re not sure how comfortable the people of New Plymouth will be with the operating costs for a new building which is not likely to make a profit, based on how the TSB Stadium is doing. Have a look at what is expected over time with the attachment to this story, but,

• By 2033/34 an operating cost is expected of $2,109,975 – Wow over $2 million each year !
• Again, the cost to bring the existing Race Stand up to the required maintenance level is around a mere $300k TOTAL ONE OFF COST.

The 2024 LTP Research
The research the Mayor sent us showed that people ONLY SUPPORTED the hub if their rates did not go up (61%) or only went up with a small rates increase (30%).

So, all up 91% of people ONLY SUPPORTED the hub if it did not affect their rates.

So, How are we paying for the Hub Project ?
A project with a new indoor courts building and the removal of the Race Stand (which will be very carefully recycled – more on that later).

The Hub project will mean borrowing $50 million over 10 years to build the 6 indoor courts.

We realise the cost of the Indoor Courts building would cost $50M even if the Race Stand didn’t come down, but do people realise what that $50M looks like with what they will owe with future rates ?

These new courts are unlikely to make a profit as the TSB Stadium is already not making a profit. There is not enough demand for the use of the TSB Stadiums courts now, so will there be demand for the new bigger indoor courts building ? We know in 8 years this facility is expected to cost us over $2 million a year to run. This $2 M is not included in what we are borrowing.

• And we had around a $300k ONE OFF cost no one wanted to cover to bring the existing building up to the required maintenance level.

So how much interest will rate payers and renters pay on $50 M over 10 years ?

We’ve worked on numbers borrowing $5M each year for 10 years to get to $50M.
(It is likely more will be borrowed in the earlier years and less in the later years, but this $5M a year approach gives you an idea of the amount of dollars we are talking about over time.)

$5M at 5% interest = $250,000 p.a in interest payments – FOR ONE YEAR
(5% is an assumption on the low side based on current interest rates)

$250k for one year of interest – on $5M.
$1.25 Million interest per year after 5 years – on $25M
$2.5 Million interest per year after 10 years – on $50M

At the end of 10 years the ratepayers and renters of New Plymouth will have paid somewhere in the region of $13.75 Million in interest for this new indoor courts building.

• Just a reminder, the NPDC wasn’t keen to spend around $300k for the maintenance of the current building – but they are happy to sign off a plan to pay something like $13.75 M in interest over 10 years ? (Paying back the actual $50 M isn’t included in these numbers, and interest will be paid on that $50 M until it is paid back).

Is there anyone else who is a ratepayer or a renter who sees some flaws with how this decision has been made by the NPDC ?

Are there people asking why are we removing one building so we can put up another ?

Are there people asking why didn’t the NPDC ask me if I wanted to go ahead with the different plan they are NOW putting in place ?

In a time when so many people are struggling with living costs are there people thinking what on earth are the NPDC thinking ? Why would the NPDC be spending this money at all, at this time ?

And, we still come back to, at NO TIME did the NPDC tell the people of New Plymouth they were demolishing one building, on a site they manage for the people of New Plymouth, to put a new one in it’s place.

We argue the NPDC are not making good decisions on our behalf. This is one project – the council is running many projects. This story is the tip of one iceberg.

Please share this story as we are trying to make a lot more people in New Plymouth aware of how decisions are being made by the NPDC.

P.S We also did an OIA on the 99% recycling plan for the Hub which will make up a big chunk of the $50 million being borrowed. We will share that with you at another time. This could be a situation where the NPDC will be a recognised leader on a recycling programme which will cost the ratepayers and renters a small fortune.

One of our Team suggested a picture to go with this story – a white elephant picture, for what may turn out to be a future expensive white elephant for the district, click on the link to see it.