Editorial: Tory Whanau’s Reading Cinema deal heartless in face of community cuts

Wellington City Council is no longer considering cuts to swimming pool hours after a pubic backlash but Khandallah Pool could still be closed for good. Photo / Mark Mitchell

EDITORIAL

In politics, perception can quickly become reality as illustrated in Wellington this past week as tearful residents pleaded with councillors to leave their libraries and swimming pools alone.

Wellington City Council finalised its draft 10-year budget on Thursday, desperately needing to find savings so more money can be redirected into fixing the city’s leaking pipes.

The mean penny-pinching was bleak, proposing to cut back opening hours for swimming pools and libraries for savings of as little as $300,000.

Luckily residents spoke up, a “public outcry” heard by Mayor Tory Whanau who scrapped the options.

Councillor Ben McNulty apologised to swim clubs for ever proposing such cuts.

“For us to get hundreds of emails, for people to be up overnight, for people to be worried about their jobs when the political will to do so was never there, was a failure of all of us collectively around this table.

“I do want to say sorry and I really am disappointed that we put that out there when it really was never ever up for serious consideration.”

As it never ever should have been. If a council can’t protect core services like swimming pools and libraries then why bother having one?

And why focus on tiny, cruel savings, when money is being poured freely into the bottomless pit that is the Town Hall (it could cost as much as $329 million to earthquake-strengthen and refurbish that building), and $32 million reportedly being offered to buy the land under the privately-owned Reading Cinema.

The derelict cinema complex on Courtenay Place has been closed since 2019 after an earthquake risk was discovered. It has become a symbol of the tired state of the once-bustling party strip, labelled a “big black hole” by hospitality leaders.

It’s understood the deal, which has only been discussed in public-excluded meetings, would ensure the multimillionaire owners use ratepayers’ money to finally strengthen the building so it can reopen.

But ratepayers can’t really be sure what their money will be used for as everything is being kept secret from them.

In June last year, Tory Whanau hinted at an announcement coming on Reading “soon”, describing it as “a very exciting thing”.

What followed was a tumultuous, expensive circus as councillors were accused of leaking commercially sensitive information about the deal, resulting in a $43,000 Code of Conduct investigation to find the maligned leaker, but that failed to do so.

Ratepayers have still not been told anything about the deal, gathering scraps of information instead from media reports.

Jump forward to today and it’s no secret Wellington desperately needs to reconsider its spending priorities as the city loses 44 per cent of its drinking water through leaks.

But who would have expected public libraries and swimming pools to be offered up as sacrificial lambs for minuscule savings ahead of a multimillion-dollar deal with private business owners?

Why should Wellington ratepayers be denied basic services to ensure the mayor gets an “exciting” development under way? A development the private owners should be doing themselves if they really cared about the city.

The mayor heard the outcry over pools and libraries but the damage was already done. The perception is a council that favours large-scale “vanity projects” over protecting basic services. She shouldn’t have needed to receive community feedback to realise that.

And while using residents’ money to revitalise Courtenay Place may have won public support in 2023, it’s a much harder sell when it comes at the cost of community facilities and vital water fixes.