Background

A proposal has been submitted by the Community Facilities Trust (CFT) a Council Controlled Organisation, for the development of a 12,000 seat Sports Stadium on Petone Recreation Ground (Petone Rec).

The Petone Rec is a large open space where people of all ages come to play, walk, compete (sport), relax and regenerate.  It is surrounded on three sides by residents, two schools, three churches, and a home for the elderly. Many teams regularly use this ground for rugby, cricket, school sports days, marching training, and touch rugby. It is a key part of the Petone Community and it is free to all who want to come and use it. There are currently 7 fields that are used for Rugby in winter and cricket and touch rugby in summer.

This proposal came about after an approach by Welnix - the organisation that owns the Phoenix Football Franchise.  The Phoenix Football team is a commercial enterprise that currently play their home games at Westpac Stadium in Wellington (15 minutes from Petone). 

The main reasons cited by Welnix for the development of a 12,000 seat stadium are:

- Better fan experience for Phoenix fans

- Provides a home ground for their games, training, administration, offices and mechandising

CFT is responsible for the development of community facilities for the benefit of ratepayers in Hutt City.  CFT is supporting this proposal as good for "economic development" in the region.  

The proposal is for a $48m capital development, an initial $25m of Council funding, with some funding from Welnix and the remainder to be found/raised by CFT through sponsorship etc.

CFT have cited numerous uses for the stadium including:

- Professional rugby union and league franchises e.g. Hurricanes and Lions

- Concerts

- Conferences, expos/exhibitions, and rentable meeting spaces

- Community events.

It appears that the Stadium structure will cover approximately half of the Petone Recreation Ground, and a further specialist training area (sand based training pitch), will take up quarter of the remaining grass area.  

For further information on the proposal see: http://huttcity.govt.nz/Documents/Your%20Council/CFT/CFT-submission.pdf

 

The Issue

If it goes ahead this development would have signifcant impact on the region.   The development of a Stadium is not, and has not, been in any short, medium or long term plan for Hutt City.   The proposal is a response to fulfil a commercial need from one franchise - the Phoenix Football franchise, and it has been supported by CFT as a community asset that would generate economic benefit for the region. 

To my knowledge the Hutt City Council or the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GRWC) has not done any independent analysis of the need for another Stadium, or the economic benefit of of a second Stadium to the Greater Wellington Region as a whole.

If this goes ahead the impact to Hutt City and region as a whole will be:

- competition with Westpac Stadium - taking spend away from Westpac Stadium, and therefore putting pressure on rates and funding for that stadium.  Hutt City ratepayers are currently still paying rates towards Westpac Stadium.

- Shuffling of economic spend from one part of the region to another - there is no new spend!

- Local (Petone) sports clubs will lose sports grounds. The Petone recreation ground is home to Petone Rugby club - for the last 120 years and they do not support this proposal ref: www.PetoneRugby.com

- Increasing Hutt City Council debt by a significant amount which means that this money isn't available for other developments in the Hutt City area.  

- Hutt City ratepayers would be funding this stadium and the Westpac stadium through a year on year increase in rates for the next 5 years.

- Loss of children's play area, sporting grounds for local schools, junior and nursery grade facilities (currently 400 children in Petone Rugby alone).  All of which is currently free to users.

-Importantly, the proposal does not have any provision for the surrounding infrastructure required to support 12,000 people funnelling into the Petone area for games.  The Rec is in the middle of a residential area.   There is no parking for thousands of cars, and public transport is a considerable distance from the Rec, forcing thousands of people into small congested streets.  The fact that none of this has been considered in the funding proposal, means that there will be additional and (at this stage) unknown costs to the ratepayer.  The $48m therefore is not the entire cost.  There are also known problems with drainage at the Rec, as well as the earthquake risk with the current grandstand, the replacement cost of which has not been factored into the proposal.

- loss of community amenity and large green space.  The Rec is currently freely enjoyed by many people from the Petone Community and beyond.  It is a peaceful, family space, with a long history.   Petone is a popular location for families to live and as a result there is considerable pressure on the entire area as developers want more land for infill housing and large retail entreprises (supermarkets, and large warehouse style stores).   The available green space is reducing and pressure on infrastructure growing. 

Action

We are asking the Mayor and the Councillors to take a regional as well as Hutt City view and consider the needs of the city and region first. The impact of this development is much wider than just Petone.   The proposal is commercially driven proposal that benefits a few at the cost of many.   Put the region and the community first and don't progress this proposal any further. 

The Mayor has commited to listening to the people.  Through the Draft Annual Plan the council is seeking feedback from the community on whether or not there is support for a Stadium in Petone. 

If you are a Hutt City ratepayer:

- have your say on the proposal at:  http://huttcity.govt.nz/en/Your-Council/News-and-notices/Latest-News/The-Proposed-Petone-Arena/

- and you can also sign this petition and share it with others.

 

If you live outside Hutt City, and you support this view:

-you can sign this petition

- and write or email your views to mayor.councillors@Huttcity.govt.nz.

 

Once this green space is lost - we will never get it back.