We still want the party, says council

Photo / Steven McNicholl

Auckland Regional Council members deny being "party poopers" for voting to retain the main Queens Wharf shed, despite provoking the Government into considering other sites for a Rugby World Cup fan zone.

Last week's decision had one Auckland rugby columnist recalling the council's veto of a $500 million-plus waterfront stadium proposal by the previous Labour Government, and calling for chairman Mike Lee to be made to watch next year's tournament huddled around a tiny television set with a warm beer in the "derelict shed".

Wellington City Council member John Morrison has offered his city's support to take World Cup events off a "hopeless" Auckland, where "they are quite incapable of running anything".

Mr Lee is in China and could not be reached for comment on the rugby columnist's description of him as "a party pooper of the first order".

But other councillors said it was the Government which was considering removing the party from Queens Wharf, after the ARC's decision to accommodate the rugby fans without sacrificing a part of Auckland's waterfront heritage.

Sandra Coney, chairwoman of the council's heritage and parks committee, said her rugby stalwart father, the late Tom Pearce, spent many evenings "going down to the Grafton rugby shed to imbibe with his mates, so to me a shed is an ideal place for a party".

"Bring in the sawdust," she said.

Asked about her opposition to the waterfront stadium idea, she said that would have destroyed the amenity of the waterfront and especially the heritage of the whole Britomart precinct.

"So I was very happy that never went ahead and Eden Park is turning out to be a great venue."

Joel Cayford said regardless of where the Government decided to base Party Central under New Zealand's contractual obligations to the International Rugby Board, Queens Wharf would remain a key part of the event.

That was because two cruise ships holding about 3000 fans would be tied up there, without need for any customs bondage area, and the public would be free to mingle with them on the wharf.

"If the Government wants to locate its tent elsewhere, there will still be 3000 fans living at Queens Wharf so we would like to be able to spend a minimum amount of money there as well."

Dr Cayford said the council had "always supported Queens Wharf as a good place for Party Central, but the issue has arisen over the price for it.

"If the price is the destruction of the sheds, which are deemed by many to be heritage, that price is too high."

The suggestion that the fan zone may be developed elsewhere came from Prime Minister John Key in Vietnam at the weekend. He said the Government was "not very enthralled" with the council's proposal and nominated Victoria Park and Viaduct Harbour as potential sites. Mr Key, who returned to New Zealand yesterday, is due to be briefed on the impasse today by Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully.

Mr McCully yesterday ruled out moving the main fan zone out of Auckland, but acknowledged it could be developed at an alternative venue within the city if a resolution could not be reached with the regional council.

Acting chairman Paul Walbran said the ARC was investigating "roughly a dozen options" for accommodating Party Central on Queens Wharf. The council's resolution last week was to commission urgent work from its architects "on options that combine the retention of Shed 10 and the minister's preferred temporary building for the Rugby World Cup".

Mr Walbran said: "We didn't vote to evict Party Central from Queens Wharf - we certainly don't see ourselves as party poopers."