Capital Football kicked off its protest this weekend by holding football games, while withholding grounds fees from Wellington City Council.
“We just think the fees are too high and we don't know why they're too high,” Capital Football chief executive Richard Reid said.
“I want to see transparency, I want to see the cost modelling… I’ve been doing this a long time… basically treated like fools by council staff… we pay rates, we pay fees, we deserve to know.”
Parent Alex Barton supports Capital Football’s action.
“It's a really expensive sport now to be a part of which is not fair for those that can't afford it,” she said.
Wellington councillor Nureddin Abdurahman’s been the driving force in the council committing to an independent review of grounds costs, with the scope of the review due to be confirmed next month. It’s not yet known when the review will be complete.
“Thinking there are kids out there not getting that opportunity is unacceptable for me,” he said.
This came after Mayor Tory Whanau decided an independent review wouldn’t be going ahead, despite the Mayor and a number of councillors committing to the move during their election campaign.
“Since becoming Mayor, after receiving some advice I had initially declined the request for the review, assuming that the Long Term Plan would have been sufficient to review all of the council costs,” she said.
“As it turns out that wasn’t sufficient, the Affordable Sports and others had requested that we reconsider and we’ve done that – Councillor Abdurahman came to me with a solution that basically allow us to put in a Notice of Motion and have council commit to a review. It received unanimous support including mine.”
Mayor Whanau said she’s pleased a solution has been agreed on so the council can move forward and “ensure that our communities have access to sport.”
She said she apologises for the stress and inconvenience caused to people by the initial reneging on the review.
Wellington's turf hire costs $82.50 per hour during popular times, while for college and junior use the cost is $40 per hour.
‘The revenue and finance policy target is 85% via rates with the remaining 15% paid through fees and user charges,’ a spokesperson for Wellington City Council stated in an email.
‘For the 2021/22 year sport ground, including turfs, revenue was $750,000, the total cost for maintaining these grounds was $5.1 million. A deficit of $4.3 million,’ he stated.
In Auckland, it’s free for community sports groups to hire grass pitches and artificial turfs.
Christchurch City Council doesn’t have an artificial turf for football but charges Canterbury Hockey $45 per hour for use of the turf it owns and operates.
Hamilton and Dunedin don’t operate artificial turfs, but it costs nearly $12 per hour to hire an unenclosed field without facilities in Dunedin, and $7 per hour paying for a field in Hamilton through a six monthly charge for competition use.
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