Sir Ray Avery talks at his foundation launch at Eden Park about the plan for a concert to raise money for his LifePod baby incubators. Photo / Greg Bowker
Sir Ray Avery talks at his foundation launch at Eden Park about the plan for a concert to raise money for his LifePod baby incubators. Photo / Greg Bowker
A final decision on whether Eden Park can proceed with the proposed "Million Babies" Waitangi Day LifePod Appeal concert is likely to be made this week.
A meeting has been called between trustees of The Eden Park Trust after its lawyers advised the consent process for the concert is likelyto stretch beyond October and cost in excess of $750,000, not including legal costs.
The new information has left the Trust weighing the charity concert's future.
"[Trustees] need to weigh up whether we can justify the costs associated with the resource consent process and whether we are confident consent can realistically now be obtained in time to finalise international acts," chief executive Nick Sautner said.
Plans for the Live Aid-style concert were announced by Sir Ray Avery, a former New Zealander of the Year, in the hopes of raising money in an effort to help save babies around the world.
Avery wants to build enough LifePod incubators to save a million babies and the concert was the first step in raising the $4 million needed to make 2000 pods.
Hundreds of people have since made submissions on whether the concert should be allowed to go ahead, with some local residents posting strong criticism, most notably former Prime Minister Helen Clark.
Clark has questioned whether Eden Park was fully behind the cause or just using the concert as a "Trojan horse" to provide a precedent for music concerts in the future.
Eden Park chief executive Nick Sautner holds his newborn baby at the Sir Ray Avery Foundation launch at Eden Park. Photo / Greg Bowker
The park, New Zealand's biggest stadium with capacity for 60,000 spectators, has consent under the Auckland unitary plan for up to 25 night-time sports events a year.
The plan also allows for up to six night-time concerts a year, but requires the trust to apply for an individual resource consent for each concert. No consent for a concert has ever been granted.
The trust's application for the Million Babies event, lodged on June 6, said noise levels during the concert, between 7pm and 10.30pm on Waitangi Day, could exceed 75 decibels for about 30 houses west of Sandringham Rd and 80 decibels for another small group of houses near the northwest corner of the park.
On July 12, when submissions closed, the Trust announced that it would offer a noise limit as a condition for the resource consent, but it has not yet said what the limit would be.
Despite some criticism, three-quarters of submissions to the resource consent process support the LifePod Appeal concert, as do 91 per cent of Aucklanders and 87 per cent of people living nearby, according to the Trust.
"We had a fantastic fish n' chips night on Friday with more than 150 of our neighbours and their children where similar strong support for the LifePod Appeal concert was expressed," Sautner said.
However he said the Trust was now in a "difficult position".
"Because the process we have to go through for just one concert is the same as a property investor might have to go through for a major development, such as the recent Matiatia Bay marina case."
The Eden Park Trust expects to announce its decision on Thursday.
