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Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui velodrome repair plans continue despite three district councillors' objections

Finn Williams
By Finn Williams
Multimedia journalist·Whanganui Chronicle·
16 Sep, 2022 05:00 PM4 mins to read

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Plans to repair Whanganui's velodrome are proceeding despite concerns raised by three Whanganui District Councillors. Photo / Bevan Conley

Plans to repair Whanganui's velodrome are proceeding despite concerns raised by three Whanganui District Councillors. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui District Council's chief executive says work to replace a velodrome track is continuing, despite objections from some councillors.

In a council meeting last May, the council voted to include $2.5 million in its Long Term Plan (LTP) towards the Whanganui Velodrome, which has been closed since February 2021.

Earlier this month the Whanganui Chronicle reported negotiations between the council and potential suppliers of materials for repair work were ongoing.

Following that, Whanganui District councillors Rob Vinsen, Graeme Young, and Charlie Anderson raised concerns about the process, saying there had been no formal discussion as to how to spend the $2.5million.

"As far as we're concerned we're waiting for an item to come before the council where we can vote on a proposal, and we don't want to see it proceed any further until that formal process has occurred," Vinsen said.

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He said there had been a workshop in February where a proposal to replace the track timber with Accoya, a high-performance wood composite, was explained.

"At that workshop, it was left to produce a business plan and a project plan, and that's what we're expecting to have before we put a tick beside any contract to rebuild the track."

Vinsen also questioned if outside organisations would contribute torepair costs and track operating expenses.

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"At this point in time, the ratepayer is paying for the lot and that's what we're not happy about, so if [a business plan] comes back I would hope those elements could be covered," Vinsen said.

Young said he was in favour of repairing the track if the funding was split 50/50 between the council and outside organisations.

Anderson said when the resolution was made to put aside the money, it was never confirmed what the money would be used for.

Council's chief executive David Langford said there was no requirement to hold a formal vote as it was agreed the money would be spent on investing in the velodrome, which is what was happening with the repairs.

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"There's no conflict, there's no reason to take it back to council because they've already made their decision to invest in the velodrome," he said.

Responding to Vinsen's calls for project and business plans to be presented, he said the resolution didn't explicitly require either a project plan or business plan to be produced to proceed.

Langford said the council had put together a project plan for the velodrome as they did with all their projects.

However, the project plan was a management document and Langford said those are only presented to councillors for approval under exceptional circumstances.

"They would cover off things like what's our approach to procurement going to be, once we've got a contractor on board how are we going to manage health and safety on the job site?.

"Those are all proceeding as per plan, as per what we've told councillors previously, I think there's just a little bit of a misunderstanding by those councillors as to what they are and the fact that they would not be going to council as that is not our normal process."

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He said the council had committed to working with key stakeholders to prepare a long-term business plan for the velodrome management which would look at future use and development.

The business plan would be brought back to the council in the future as no decisions had been made for it, and no funding had been put aside for anything it may implement, according to Langford.

On the issue of who will fund the repairs, Langford said the council would always welcome third party funding, but proceeding with the repairs was not contingent on third party funding, as it was not a provision included in the LTP.

Langford said the council would look for partners and stakeholders to contribute funding and support fundraisers for any future development of the velodrome.

He said the first priority for the council was to maintain a level of service they committed to, which meant the velodrome had to be brought back to a condition where it can be used by the public again.

"Given that the money was supposed to be spent over years one and two of the long term plan, we're actually a little bit behind progress on this and we really should be underway by now."

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