Community groups face tight squeeze under Council budget proposals

Community groups are anxiously checking their leases and crunching their numbers as Auckland Council’s budget proposes to hugely increase the fees charged for its facilities.

The proposed changes to Council’s Community Occupancy Guidelines could see the current ‘peppercorn’ rental of $1 per annum for a Council building rise to $1300, with large increases also in what is charged for maintenance (eg. from $500 per annum to $5000).

Locally this will affect a wide range of organisations, including sports clubs,

Centrestage Theatre, the HBC Youth Centre, Stoney Homestead, CAB, the local marae, Estuary Arts Centre and many more.

Each situation will be different, depending on what leases the organisation holds with Council – for example who owns the land and buildings.

Estuary Arts chair Michael Irwin says the proposed fees, combined with the deep cuts proposed to grant funding, would leave the arts centre out of pocket by more than $20,000.