One last battle as V8 race buried

The Auckland City Council canned the V8 Supercar race last night but not before councillors, still deeply divided on the event, had one last slugfest.

Auckland Deputy Mayor and City Vision leader Dr Bruce Hucker said the council had poured $750,000 down the drain on a "foolhardy proposal" under previous Mayor John Banks and the Citizens & Ratepayers Now majority.

He accused the previous council of leading a political charge and wasting money that could have been put into a range of other activities.

C&R Now councillor Doug Armstrong said purists opposed to the event on the grounds of traffic congestion and so forth were being defeatist.

"I can't stand V8 car racing but every now and then a city like Auckland needs to shut down and have a bit of fun," Mr Armstrong said.

Three independent commissioners turned down resource consent for the inner-city car race on Tuesday, saying traffic jams, noise and community impacts were too great.

The council had decided earlier not to appeal against a knockback by the commissioner and last night it became official: the proposed V8 supercar race round Victoria Park in Central Auckland for seven years from April 2006 will not take place.

The loss of the multimillion-dollar event, tens of thousands of spectators and a global television audience has damaged Auckland's ability to host big attractions, say council critics such as the V8 supercar organisation Avesco and the Auckland Streetcar Supporters Club.

Councillor Scott Milne said Auckland was well behind cities such as Wellington and Hamilton in attracting events and would "become a laughing stock if we don't get our act together and plan and budget a major events strategy".

The council voted unanimously to investigate a budget for the bidding, seed funding and support to bring big events to Auckland.

City Vision councillor Penny Sefuiva said for Auckland to be a vibrant city with big events it needed to carry citizens with it. "We wrongly persisted in backing the wrong horse and the shame is it cost us so much."

A Herald-DigiPoll of 1000 people - half in Auckland City and the rest from the wider region - found 47.8 per cent in favour of closing streets around Victoria Park for the race, and 43.9 per cent against.

Finance chairman Vern Walsh has asked officers for a full breakdown of the $750,000 cost of the failed bid, saying he believed the spending had got out of hand. The costs would be made public, he said. The North Shore City Council said it spent $55,000, including legal and consultant costs, on the race.

The Auckland Regional Council said staff time amounted to between $15,000 and $20,000.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis last night said he had invited the event organiser to a meeting today to see whether the race could be held in Manukau City.