A new report delivered to council has put the kibosh on the expensive proposal to roof the Whanganui Velodrome. Photo / File
The long-awaited release of an independent report into the roofing the Whanganui velodrome has concluded there is "no current valid case" to proceed with the original proposal.
The report, which was completed in October, was made public on Tuesday and cited a substantial upfront cost and a lack of demand for the facilities put forward in the Copeland design, which includes expanding its use to include a new speed skating track and improving accessibility to allow crowd events of up to 6000 people.
But it leaves the door open for another form of roofing development at the velodrome.
"In summary, there is no current valid case to proceed with the current design proposal, which based on its current scope will be an expensive facility to build and operate and will not meet some of the functional requirements currently proposed," the report by consultants SGL concluded.
The report found that, based on an estimated capital cost of $35.22 million to complete the project, local and/or central government would be required to contribute a minimum of $24.7 million to get the project off the ground.
It is estimated within the report that the remaining $10.5 million of funding could be raised from non-governmental sources, including the Lottery Grants Board, personal donations, and funds raised from naming rights.
After the initial capital cost, it is believed that the ongoing net operating cost for the proposed option would be between $400,000 and $600,000 annually, with annual depreciation expected to total a further $1.05 million.
The report also argued against the suggestion from the Regional Velodrome Development Trust that a roofed velodrome would have the ability to host nine large concerts and multiple large food and beverage festivals every year.
"From all information sighted, there is no benchmarked case for this level of concert activity in a provincial centre such as Whanganui," the report stated.
The report also concluded there was no demonstrated need for speed skating in Whanganui, as is suggested within the proposal to include a state of the art speed skating rink within the centre of the velodrome.
The report said there may be other options.
"With regard to a roof covering that focuses solely on providing weather protection to the cycling track, there are likely to be a number of lower-cost options," the report added.
"Further detailed work is required to validly assess these options."
Also tabled at Tuesday's Whanganui District Council meeting was an alternative, more simplified design to roof the velodrome, but it did not include any costings or further investigation.
However, an estimate of $19.06 million for the alternate design was included within another council report.
According to the council's property general manager Leighton Toy, the alternative proposal developed by Boon Team Architects is in an early stage of development.
"At the moment, the alternative design is at the concept stage, with indicative images of what the development could look like and some indicative costs of undertaking that," Toy told the meeting.
"If the council was to decide to proceed with the alternative design then there would need to be a developed design undertaken in a proper professional process around defining what that is through a number of professional reports."
However, Leigh Grant, chairman of the Regional Velodrome Development Trust (RVDT), said the alternative proposal is not yet detailed enough.
"There isn't enough detail yet published to enable a full comparison of this design with the original tension membrane design. It will be necessary to accurately compare the costs and the ability of each design to deliver what is needed for wider community use and sporting events," Grant said in a statement.
"The solution chosen for a roof for Whanganui's velodrome must be fit for purpose as a multi-purpose facility. It should be able to cater for a range of sporting, cultural and community events, without affecting the use of other local facilities."
Despite the report concluding their original proposal was not viable, the RVDT is still hopeful that the project will eventually get off the ground.
Grant said it was important any proposal provided multiple uses for the facility.
"We don't believe that doing work on the existing velodrome for cycling only is really an option. It's got to be multi-purpose."
"We haven't read all the reports yet, but the report seems to be heavily focused on cycling. That's not what we're about. There is no velodrome in the world that operates without other uses."
Grant said the two proposed secondary uses for the facility, skating and events, are both attractive to the city.
"Skating is just one example of a growing sport in New Zealand. We have to consider a lot of that and we believe there is an opportunity there for Whanganui.
"I think we could have concerts there, they don't necessarily need to be high-level ones. We know promoters are looking for a large covered facility in the lower half of the North Island and we believe we can provide that."
Councillor Phillipa Baker-Hogan, a longtime supporter of roofing the velodrome, said she was pleased that the council was finally in a position to consult the public on the proposal.
"I think everyone knows that roofing a velodrome won't just be for a handful of old men in their lycra," Baker-Hogan said in the meeting.
"I really encourage the community to engage with elected members to encourage, in my view as a champion, as a minimum looking at roofing what is a significant asset for this community."
Meanwhile, councillor Helen Craig said after seven years on council, she was tired of the issue remaining unresolved.
"I don't often say something negative about this council. I think everybody works very hard and everybody does their best, but I never ever want to go through another process over many years over the velodrome roof. When did this start? I can't even remember," Craig told the meeting.
"It's just been too long, and I think the public must be absolutely fed up with it. But I am happy we finally have got to a stage where we can make a decision. That's a good outcome."
Councillor Rob Vinsen said he was concerned about the cost of the project and whether or not the district can afford it.
"There has been a lot of emotion about this project for a number of years. Now the public have the facts in front of them," Vinsen said.
Both proposals will now be considered by the council within the long term plan process, expected to begin next month.
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