Manawatu-Whanganui needs to make best of limited sports funding pie

Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall says Cooks Gardens in the best athletics venue in the region. Photo/ Stuart Munro

A smart approach needs to be taken in order to get the most out of a limited pie, according to a study of the region's sports facilities.

Sport Whanganui general manager Adam Gosney said work on an overarching blueprint for the region's sporting facilities had been going on for a couple of years.

The goal was to do a stock take of what facilities there were across the region and come up with guidelines for growth and replacement.

Gosney presented the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Sport Facilities Plan to Whanganui district councillors this month saying there was an over-provision of turfs, for example, and cases of school facilities next to identical community facilities.

A closer relationship between the two could mean sharing facilities and reducing cost, he said.

At this month's meeting of the council's property and community services committee Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall said a region-wide approach made sense.

"We've only got a limited amount of pie in the region," he said.

"We should acknowledge that we all can't have a velodrome, we can't all have a Manfeild or a rugby venue that can host test matches."

McDouall said it had Whanganui has some of the best facilities in the region.

"We've got the number one athletics venue in the region, Cooks Gardens is an internationally recognised facility."

The study's summary report said "historical decision making in respect of new or replacement facilities has often been undertaken on ad-hoc basis".

It said population growth and the need to replacement facilities will put demand of funding so there was a need for the whole region to work together.

Gosney said the study was being presented to councils as a major asset owner alongside the Ministry of Education and the idea was the study would guide future decisions.