Friday, Jan 30, 2015
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Property January 30, 2015
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Rakaia complex pitched BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
The fate of Rakaia’s longawaited sports complex will lie in the community’s hands after its supporters won a last-minute bid to have it included in the Ashburton District Council’s long-term plan. The project, however, will not be signalled as a planned expenditure, rather it will come into the plan for discussion and debate. Whether it flies or fails will depend on the community’s taste for adding another
$1.5 million to $2 million worth of spending into the council’s budget. Yesterday the complex’s architects and members of its Rakaia committee had a tough job selling the project to district councillors. While they might have supported the concept, most initially believed the council could not afford to make a commitment to another big-ticket project. The Rakaia Sports Trust has been working on the project since 2009 and presented the
council with detailed plans that included a large court area, a lounge and support services, built around Rakaia’s existing squash courts. Rakaia was a growing community, Ken Cutforth said, and the complex had been designed as a community centre as well as a sports facility. “In 2011 Rakaia had a school roll of 141 and that was up from 78; now it’s 225 and by the end of the year it’s likely to be 240. In a short space of time it has grown 60 per cent.
“Our rugby club had 75 junior members in 2011 and last year there were 111. Rakaia was the fastest-growing part of the district in the last census,” he said. The project is anticipated to cost between $4.5 million and $5 million. Most of the money will come from the Rakaia community or through public funding, but the trust has asked the council to commit between $1.5 million and $2 million to the project. “We’d originally hoped to start building in September this year,
but realistically we’d like to think we’d get the council to commit it into the long-term plan for year two,” Mr Cutforth said. “During the intervening period we’ll be challenging the community and rattling cages and getting commitments from the community in black and white.” While they supported the project in theory, when it came to committing council funds most councillors struggled.
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