Fluffed their chance to make amends

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The scene was set last week for the council to make good after three years of messing around Musical Theatre Gisborne, which was seeking medium-term certainty over council land it leases in the industrial subdivision so it can go ahead with a $60,000 repair of the roof of its building.

Council staff were on board finally after dithering between them and councillors over what to do with the land off Innes Street, which also hosts other community groups and a business.

The long-standing leases expired in 2019, and it has been a battle for much of the time since to get a decision from the council on the clubs’ futures.

Council staff were recommending a 10-year lease for the theatre group (MTG) and two other community groups that also own their buildings on the site — Gisborne Harrier Club and Surf City Rod and Custom Club — and a five-year lease for Menzshed, which operates out of a council-owned building on a nearby site.

In April this year the council’s Finance and Performance Committee directed staff to investigate commercial use of the two sites via either sale or lease. The report before councillors last week said this proved complex for several reasons.

“Post-Cyclone Gabrielle, staff have also considered the strategic value of this industrially zoned land held by council. The land is Urban Stormwater Flood Hazard Area, and not in the (red) Urban Flood Zone. Given the uncertainties of the effects of climate change on council’s property portfolio (which have become particularly apparent post-Cyclone Gabrielle) it is recommended it would be in council’s interest to retain this . . . land in the medium term in the interests of future resilience in council’s land portfolio.”

As well as allowing the clubs to explore options for their buildings for the medium term, the staff report said the 10-year lease approach would “allow council to better understand the strategically optimal use of council-owned industrially zoned land”.

For Menzshed, the five-year lease recommendation was because decisions regarding future use of that asset would be made in this time frame, and also allow the occupier time to find an alternative location.

A visibly frustrated Mayor Rehette Stoltz was backed by just two councillors, Debbie Gregory and Rhonda Tibble, in supporting this approach. The majority voted to provide a five-year lease option for all.

Why were they against this logical approach that is in both the council’s interests and what these community groups, that they had been stuffing around, were seeking?

The councillors should front up at the MTG building to explain their thinking. If it’s raining, they could help with the buckets.