Viewpoint – Solution offered to hall fee rise

The Hibiscus and Bays Local Board will be seeking expressions of interest from any community groups interested in managing the Orewa Community Centre. We are keen that a community group should take over managing the centre and set hire fees, as we believe they would be better placed than Auckland Council to do this.

This month, the community centre’s hire fees are increasing because of a regional uniform hire fee model adopted by the council through its Long Term Plan process.

The local board is in a difficult position. While we accept that hire fees for the community centre have not increased for some time and that most people would agree that some level of increase could be justified, we believe that the fee structure should reflect what is being charged within the Orewa community and not throughout the whole Auckland region, especially as we understand that currently this community centre is trading profitably.

We are also concerned that higher increases may cause difficulties for some of the groups who regularly use the centre and have done so for many years.

As this is the only venue managed by the council on the Hibiscus Coast, it is the only one subject to this proposed fee increase. All other community group-operated centres and venues determine and administer their own fee schedules so the new hire fees won’t affect them.

In discussions with the council we are looking at taking the centre out of the council-run and managed structure and instead allowing a local community group to manage it. To do this, requires a group with a formal structure, such as a trust or incorporated society, to take on the role of making bookings, setting the fee structure and managing the hall’s internal maintenance.

Given the impact of this year’s fee increase, the council has agreed to put in place a transitional arrangement for regular hall users. Fees will be capped at the 2015/2016 rate plus an additional 20 per cent but new and casual users will pay the new hire rate from this month.  

Council staff are contacting regular hirers and advising them about the new fees and they will also provide quarterly updates about hire usage to the local board.

However longer-term, the local board is keen to enable a community group to manage bookings and set hire fees for the Orewa Community Centre.

The board has set aside funding this year for a study and to complete an expressions of interest process. We look forward to hearing from any interested groups.