Wellington City Council budget crunch: Libraries, swimming pools and fireworks under threat

Wellington City Council is finalising its draft 10-year budget today and service cuts are being proposed in the scramble to find more money for the capital’s leaking pipes. Georgina Campbell takes a look at some of the tough decisions Mayor Tory Whanau and her councillors are facing.

Swimming pool hours

Wellington City Council is proposing to reduce the opening hours of swimming pools to save $580,000 (an 0.12 per cent impact on rates).

Tawa Pool and Karori Pool would only open six days a week and Thorndon Pool’s season would be shortened from 23 weeks to 14 weeks.

Khandallah Pool could be closed completely. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Opening hours at Tawa Pool would also be cut from 15 hours a day on weekdays and 12 hours a day on weekends to just eight hours a day.

Khandallah Pool could be closed completely. The pool needs to be rebuilt but the cost has escalated from $8.1 million to $11.7m.

Instead, council officials are proposing to close the pool and landscape the site for $4.5m - a project that would also include more flood mitigation and a new entranceway to the park.

Khandallah Pool is used the least out of the summer pools in the Wellington region with an average of 10,339 visits a year over the past four seasons.

Library hours

Suburban libraries, apart from Johnsonville, face a reduction in opening hours equivalent to one day a week. This would save $400,000 (0.08 per cent rates impact).

There is also a proposal to close the Arapaki Library and council service centre. Arapaki was designed as a pop-up solution after the closure of Wellington’s central library, Te Matapihi, which is being earthquake-strengthened and is due to reopen in 2026.

Wellington’s central library, Te Matapihi, is being earthquake-strengthened and is due to reopen in 2026. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Closing the service centre would mean moving services online and to the phone, leaving the council with no front-facing service. Other services such as recycling bin collection would be moved to libraries.

The early closure of the temporary library and service centre would save $300,000 (0.06 per cent impact).

Fireworks and New Year’s Eve event

Wellington City Council’s signature New Year’s Eve event is on the chopping block which council officials admit would be a “very visible reduction of the creative programme”.

This would save $290,000 (0.06 per cent impact). This year’s festivities included live music, a kids’ countdown, and a blast of fireworks at midnight.

There is also a proposal to discontinue the council’s annual fireworks display which has previously been planned to coincide with events such as the Fifa Women’s World Cup and Matariki.

This would save $200,000 (0.04 per cent impact).

Wellington Airport shares

The council could sell its 34 per cent in Wellington Airport, worth $278m.

There is concern the council’s investment portfolio is exposed to considerable risk in the event of a significant natural event like an earthquake.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has made it clear she would not sell the airport shares to sell down debt. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The council is proposing to reinvest the money in a new perpetual investment fund that would be protected against future councils withdrawing the capital to pay down debt.

Let’s Get Wellington Moving projects scaled back and delayed

Some projects from the cancelled $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving transport plan are being brought in-house by the council.

The Thorndon Quay and Hutt Road project is among them. The plan was to install part-time bus lanes in both directions along these roads and a two-way cycleway.

However, the council is now proposing to ditch the Hutt Road portion of the project to save $10m.

A plan to pedestrianise the Golden Mile is also affected. The council is proposing to progress with construction on Courtenay Place and defer $83m worth of work on Lambton Quay, Manners and Willis Streets.

The full project is now proposed to be completed over 5 years. This will be done alongside a value engineering assessment to identify further cost savings.

Forecast rates increase if all cuts are approved

2024: 15.4 per cent (17 per cent including the sludge levy)

2025: 11.8 per cent (14.6 per cent with levy)

2026: 12.5 per cent (16.3 per cent with levy)

2027: 5.7 per cent (10.2 per cent with levy)

2028: 5.3 per cent (9.6 per cent with levy)

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.