Controversy has dogged the development of the Wero Whitewater Park. It was rejected by the former Manukau City Council five years ago, only for the Auckland Council to decide by a narrow margin to let the Counties Manukau Pacific Trust build a scaled back $37 million centre.
Ratepayers have contributed $20 million through the sale of adjacent council-owned land and taxpayers have pitched in $2 million. All this despite well-reasoned criticism that the council, especially, had far more important priorities, not least during the current period of austerity.
The trust has lofty ambitions. It envisages the park being profitable enough to subsidise 15,000 local schoolchildren annually. But, clearly, no private investor shared that sort of enthusiasm for the concept.
In the end, a grab-bag of other planned attractions, including a Te Papa exhibition and an artist in residence and gallery, all bearing little relation to whitewater kayaking, appears to have been required to raise the balance of the funding.
The Prime Minister, in turning the first sod at the development this week, pointed to the benefit for young South Aucklanders, while champion canoeist Ian Ferguson said it would produce Olympians. This country, however, already has a wealth of rivers suitable for the sport.
