Editorial: Time to put Napier velodrome project behind us

Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.

It is time to move on from the velodrome project, or multi-use sports facility including a velodrome, as the Napier City Council liked to call it.

Last week the council announced it would consider dropping the proposed $22.9 million facility, as Sport New Zealand did not support it.

The project has been very controversial with critics seeing it as a pet project of council CEO Wayne Jack, a keen cyclist himself.

Inevitably the project was put up against the need for an Olympic-size swimming pool in the city.

There was a feeling that Mayor Bill Dalton and Mr Jack were not listening to a growing chorus, some from inside the council itself, who believed a second-tier velodrome was simply not a priority.

Now it has become apparent that Sport NZ was not as supportive of the project as it was made out to be.

Our political reporter Victoria White has obtained a position paper from Sport NZ under the Official Information Act which states quite clearly that: "Sport NZ does not support the proposed Napier Multi-Use sports facility based on the inclusion of a velodrome which we believe is not an appropriate response to the needs of participants in the Hawke's Bay region".

They found its most likely use would be men from more well-off communities, might not result in increased participation in cycling, and it's projected financials were "extremely optimistic".

That is a pretty damning assessment of a project that was sold as something for the whole community.

The sad thing is that $500,000 has been spent on a business case that did not seem to stand up to scrutiny.

The council deserves some praise for constantly working to get new projects going in the city, but a velodrome was probably never going to pass muster.

Let's move on.