Wellington Region Sports Fees and Charges Review
30 October 2024
The Independent Review of the Wellington Regional Council’s sport facility fees has been presented to the Wellington City Council. This was called for by the Affordable Sports Group and supported by Wellington City Council, the review was completed by Martin Jenkins.
The purpose of the review was to examine the Wellington councils’ sport facility fees, to provide transparency on how fees are established, what fees contribute towards, and how capital works for sport facilities are developed and/or renewed.
Information on the review and the full report can be found here Wellington Region Sports Fees and Charges Review - Sports - Wellington City Council with the key findings being:
- Each council in the Wellington region has its own policy, approach and method of capturing the costs of providing sports facilities and setting fees.
- The different council approaches create complexity and an administrative burden for fee payers.
- Clubs and Regional Sport Organisations pass these costs onto members and this makes up a proportion of membership costs.
- Cross-subsidisation of sports facilities and fees is present but difficult to quantify.
- Most fee adjustments align with Consumer Price Index changes, but adjustments often overlook shifts in service level costs.
- A full analysis of sport facility costs and fees has not been undertaken in detail by Councils for a number of years.
Recommendations included:
- Councils and sports organisations should continue to collaborate across the region.
- Councils should consider how to improve the transparency of their costs and fees.
- Sport organisations should raise awareness among members of how fields and facilities are provided and the cost of using council facilities.
- There should be a consistent approach to substantive future fees reviews across councils, and they should occur every 3-5 years.
- Each council should assess the effectiveness of its service delivery of sporting grounds and facilities.
The Affordable Sports Group, Councils’ and Nuku Ora will be working through what these recommendations mean for facility users and how we can continue to work collaboratively towards improving communication, transparency and ultimately affordability of the provision of sports facilities for all.
To watch the Wellington City Council’s meeting, click here. Kōrau Mātinitini | Social, Cultural, and Economic Committee - 10 Whiringa-ā-nuku (October) 2024 (youtube.com)
