No rent relief for Whanganui Community Arts Centre following council vote

The centre is ineligible for a council rent subsidy because it is on land owned by the Whanganui Port Company. Photo / Mike Tweed

Whanganui’s Community Arts Centre Trust will not receive financial relief from the district council this year despite a huge rent jump.

The trust owns a building at 19 Taupō Quay but the land is owned by the Whanganui Port Company – a council-controlled organisation. Following a new valuation, the annual ground lease increased from $8250 to $23,000 for five years.

Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan told elected members an increase in land values had been occurring across Whanganui – “certainly since Covid”.

The trust had informed the council it could afford to pay $15,250 a year, she said.

Councillors were initially given three options – do nothing, give the trust a one-off grant of $7750 (the difference between the rent rise and what it could afford) from unallocated community funding of $100,000 or authorise the council to buy the land from the Port Company.

O’Hagan said because the land on Taupō Quay was owned by the Port Company, the council policy on rental subsidies for community groups did not apply. “It’s a market commercial rent and has been that way for a number of years,” she said.

“The conditions of the lease haven’t been problematic until it has become unaffordable.”

There were other ways the council could support groups like the trust, she said.

“For example, the trust could have lodged an application for community grant funding, which closed earlier this year.

“It could apply for rates remission, which is available through the policy titled ‘community, sporting and other organisations’.

“To date, the trust has done neither of these things.”

O’Hagan said up to $3726 of the trust’s annual rates could be considered for rates remission.

Councillor Kate Joblin put forward an alternative motion to leave the issue on the table until the next council meeting on March 18, which elected members voted in favour of by nine to four.

Joblin said decisions on the unallocated $100,000 in community funding needed to be made “in a cohesive fashion”.

Chief executive David Langford said he believed the landlord, Port chairman Mark Petersen, would be agreeable to the art centre not paying the full $23,0000 in the meantime, as long as the matter was resolved before the end of the financial year.

Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay said the delay would give the council time to look at the issue more broadly, including whether other community groups had been similarly affected.

Speaking to the Chronicle, trust chairwoman Marie Mackay said it would apply to both options O’Hagan suggested.

“We are all volunteers so any extra things like that fall on the trustees,” she said.

“It will take some work but it sounds like it’s going to be worthwhile.

“If council needs more time to find a permanent solution, we’re fine with that.”

At present, the trust received no council funding, she said.

“We are completely self-sufficient and we’re constantly looking for ways to save money.

“That has to be balanced by not charging community users too much – that’s our reason for being.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.