Outsourcing also considered for council holiday parks

Outsourcing has also been considered for the operation of Auckland Council’s holiday parks, and this too was kept under wraps until recently.

From July 1, the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board became responsible for decisions and budgets for Ōrewa Holiday Park, but this process has been in the wings since 2020 when council considered alternative delivery models for its three holiday parks – Ōrewa, Martins Bay and Whangateau.

Both the Hibiscus and Bays and Rodney Local Boards resolved not to outsource those operations, which is why that responsibility has been handed to them.

Local board chair Alexis Poppelbaum says the board advocated to keep the facility council managed and operated.

“It will be run as a profit-making business, with the local board now making the decisions around it,” she says.

Those profits will go to the local board, but it also needs to find the money for ongoing work. Poppelbaum says the local board has sufficient funding for the existing set of planned holiday park capital works. Anything further would require a local board decision to fund either from the board’s capital budget, or from other sources.
It is also responsible, in part, for its long-term future.

“The local board can sell the physical structures that sit on the land at the Ōrewa Holiday Park. It can also decide to outsource operations via a lease to third party operator. Council does not own the land, which is held by the Crown and is classified as a Recreation Reserve – therefore the land cannot be sold,” Poppelbaum says.