Swimming pools are a much-treasured community resource.
Swimming pools are a much-treasured community resource.
Have your say on Auckland Council’s new budget: Part 4 in a 6-part series.
Think about swimming pools. People use them from very early morning until well into the evening: for fitness and training, antenatal classes, rehabilitation, swimming lessons for kids and adults, adventure play, sports contests, senior citizens’ classes,workouts, water ballet, saunas, hanging out in a healthy environment, having fun. You name it, they’re doing it at a pool near you.
Most of us would probably say pools are an essential service. But is everything they do essential? In tough times, should they have to raise their fees and/or trim their services, and if so, which pool users should that affect?
The whole of council is like a swimming pool. We need the rubbish collected, potholes fixed, the playing fields maintained, the drains unblocked. But how often? How well? And should we pay more?
Auckland Council is trying plug a $300 million hole in its budget for the 2023-24 financial year, starting in July, and is calling for public feedback on its draft proposals.
The budget withdraws funding for the Citizens Advice Bureau, although deputy mayor Desley Simpson cautions that this doesn’t have to spell the end of the service. “Not in a month of Sundays would you want to see the CABs fall over,” she says. “But if most of their work is, say, immigration related, does that make them a Government responsibility?”
Similarly, the council’s 10 early childhood centres, called Kauri Kids, offer free enrolment for about 300 children. Some are in poor areas, but others aren’t. Closing them would save about $1m. Could other providers take them over?
The council agency for events and economic development, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU), is heavily impacted by the budget: it has to carve $44m from its spending.
This will impact the Auckland Art Gallery, the Maritime Museum and the zoo, venues like the Civic and the Aotea Centre and the city’s ability to attract international events.
Should Auckland Zoo cost more to visit, or have shorter opening hours, or offer fewer attractions, or do less conservation work? Photo / Dean Purcell
TAU also runs, along with council units like the Community Education Trust (Comet) and The Southern Initiative (TSI), a raft of economic and social programmes in socially deprived areas, helping the newly qualified, business startups and others with a hand-up, rather than a hand-out. Funding for this work, and for Comet and TSI, will be reduced or cut altogether.
Simpson says regular events like Music in Parks “might have to stop for a year”. But there’s a rule of thumb about cuts: once they’re made, they don’t get unmade. Sponsors might take it over, but if the council staff are laid off, who’s going to make that happen? The Santa Parade is also in the gun.
Library hours might be reduced. Cultural ventures will lose funding, from Northart in Northcote to the Franklin Arts Centre in Pukekohe. Some $5 million is being pulled from the “contestable regional grants”, which will impact cultural, sporting and community activities all over the city.
And the 21 local boards will have to save a combined $16 million. That’s about half of all their discretionary funds.
When the draft budget was debated at the end of last year, several councillors said they were especially concerned about community and arts funding.
“You look at what is proposed to be cut and it is always communities,” said councillor Josephine Bartley, who represents Maungakiekie-Tāmaki. “Why is that? This budget shows that we undervalue the arts, we undervalue culture, and what is going on there?”
Festivals like Diwali, Japan Day and Polyfest are now at risk. “All of these things,” she said, “are the diversity of this city, the thing that makes this city great.”
Is this the price we have to pay? Should the cuts fall elsewhere instead? Or should council raise more revenue through rates, debt and/or other measures?
Funding cuts will put big public cultural festivals like Diwali at risk. Photo / David Watson
Auckland Council budget: Have your say
All this week, the Herald is backgrounding the key issues.
Public consultation on the draft Auckland Council budget runs from February 28 to March 28. You can have your say online, or by phoning or writing in. The council is also holding dozens of “drop-in” events, community barbecues and public meetings. The details are here.
