College Sport withholding ground payments

College Sport Wellington will withhold payments on Wellington City Council and Hutt City Council sports facility fee invoices until the region-wide independent review of sport facility charges commences with the involvement of all councils.

College Sport Wellington’s board voted unanimously on 23 May to follow Capital Football in withholding payment of invoices from the two councils for the use of council-owned sport facilities.

It announced its decision on 1 June.

The decision was made to hold the councils to their election promise of an independent review, and to demonstrate the severity of the issue, College Sport’s Executive Director Bryan Dickinson says.

“Withholding fees is not a slight against the councillors,” he says.

“We’re doing it to show how serious we are about delivering better outcomes for our sporting rangatahi.”

“We really appreciate the Wellington City Councillors fronting up and making this internal review happen.

“We’re looking forward to being involved as it gets under way, and making sure school-age sport players are fairly represented in the independent review.

“It’s been great to have Porirua and Upper Hutt both pledge their participation in this review, to ensure a comprehensive assessment of the costs across the region.”

The expectation of College Sport is that, like with Capital Football, all sports games will continue as scheduled at council-owned grounds and facilities, Mr Dickinson says.

Funds equal to council invoices will be deposited into a separate, ring-fenced account until those conditions are met.