By DANIEL RIORDAN
North Shore City's high-tech business incubator will, after all, be kick-started with a ratepayers' injection of $500,000.
The full council yesterday reversed a decision by a planning committee and reinstated financial backing.
The council voted eight to five in favour of providing funds for the incubator at Massey University's Albany campus. A proposal to split the allocation over two years was defeated and the money will be included in the council's annual plan.
The university and the philanthropic trust, the Tindall Foundation, are the other backers. Their contributions have not been disclosed but are understood to be over $2 million.
The incubator will involve purpose-built facilities for firms in fields such as IT software/hardware, health sciences, biotechnology and natural resources management, combining university research with commercial developments.
The so-called enterprise centre will be officially opened later this year.
North Shore Mayor George Wood, who has backed council involvement from the start, welcomed the decision, along with Enterprise North Shore Trust chairman Maurice Ellett.
"It brings us into line with initiatives the Government has been pushing for, such as incubators and cluster developments," said Mr Ellett.
These include Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton's plan to introduce a $2 million incubator programme.
Mr Ellett said many businesses on the Shore supported the incubator and were already talking about funding initiatives that would help companies at the "nursery" stage, once they moved out of the incubator.
However, the council's decision did not gain universal approval.
Grey Power North Shore secretary Brian Watson said his group would continue to oppose council involvement.
"We believe it's a worthwhile project but we can't see why ratepayers should be involved."
Mr Watson said his group was concerned with the growth rates North Shore was pursuing, and the pressure that was putting on infrastructure.
That concern extended to infill housing and the rapid rise in new subdivisions in the north of the city.
Other ratepayers have also opposed the idea, citing a greater need for council money to be spent on more basic needs such as sewerage and roading.
The incubator concept may be relatively new to New Zealand, but it has been embraced with alacrity in the past year. Incubators have been developed to various stages by Auckland's Unitec, Victoria University and the Canterbury Development Corporation.
Boost for high-tech project
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