Council set to buy boat ramp

The boat ramp at Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club in Ahuriri, Napier. The Napier City Council is expected to finalise an offer to buy the boat ramp this week. Photo / Duncan Brown

Napier City Council is this week expected to approve a $270,000 proposal to buy Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club's boat-launching ramp at Ahuriri.

The cash-strapped club approached the council last month with an offer to sell a third-share of the boat ramp for $400,000 so it could pay off a burdensome $270,000 loan and overdraft for which the council is guarantor.

The council's counter-offer - that it take over full ownership of the ramp in return for paying off the debt - received near-unanimous support at a council committee meeting last week.

But a bid to have the decision take immediate effect was thwarted by opposition from one councillor. Because it was not unanimously supported by all councillors at the committee meeting, the proposal now has to be approved at a specially-called full council meeting due to be held on Friday, where it will require only majority support.

The proposal was outlined in a last-minute paper prepared for last Wednesday's meeting of the council's city development committee which was not circulated to councillors until just before the start of the meeting.

In the paper, council chief executive Wayne Jack also recommended councillors approve spending of up to $75,000 to install barrier arms at the ramp if the purchase went ahead "so this facility was available to the public on a user-pays basis going forward".

"The boat ramp under the ownership of council will provide an asset to the residents of Napier both now and in the future," Mr Jack said in his report.

In its $400,000 part-sale proposal put to the council last month, the club said it would use some of the money raised to install barrier arms in a bid to improve its income stream because the present "honesty system" in place for the ramp was "not working with many boats being launched without payment of a fee".

The $270,000 purchase proposal and plan for a barrier arm were supported by all councillors except Annette Brosnan at last week's city development committee meeting.

Ms Brosnan told Hawke's Bay Today she believed handing the club a ratepayer-funded "get out of jail free card" would set a bad precedent.

"No one wants the club to fail but ratepayers have gone above and beyond for the club already with bank guarantees, interest only requests and providing staff expertise. The club has not kept up their end of the deal, refusing to install a pay system for the ramp or increase subs.

"If we agree to this bailout we are taking away their biggest potential income generating asset - the ramp - and I think that will only prolong the inevitable. I voted against this bailout because I believe now is the time for the club to pull its membership resources, make some hard calls, and be responsible for their own debt."

Club president Alex Smith could not be reached for comment yesterday.