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The DCC has lost $500,000 on the purchase and sale of the Athenaeum in the Octagon.
For a total cost to the council of $500,000, ”a lot of people would actually say that’s a very good outcome”, Mr Cull argued.
It is a sad reflection on the Dunedin City Council that a $0.5 million loss is considered a good outcome.
Ex MP for ACT, Hilary Calvert, has exposed the misleading claim the the Wall Street Mall has been a good investment for the Dunedin City Council. The claimed return of 8% did not take into account the cost of land. The actual return is only about 5.5%, less than the Council pays for it’s borrowings.
Internationally respected sceptic of the Anthromorphic Global Warming theory, Lord Christopher Monkton, is going to speak in Dunedin as part of his ‘’Climate Freedom’ tour.
Tuesday 23rd April
12pm arrival for 12.30 lunch
1pm Lord Monckton’s presentation
The Savoy Reception and Conference Centre
50 Princes St, CBD, Dunedin
$40 entry, tickets available from Jock Allison
ph 03 4772903, mob 021 363337
Numbers limited- book early to avoid disappointment.
7.30pm, Burns Theatre A
entrance opposite 84 Albany St
(Otago University Clubs & Socs Building)
$20 entry, $5 students. Door sales only- cash and eftpos- no credit cards.
The Dunedin City Council has lost millions of dollars after buying Carisbrook for $7 million from the Otago Rugby Football Union and recently selling it for much less.
The loss is less clear in the Otago Daily Times.
I dispute the claim that the DCC “had also recouped a $2 million loan to the Otago Rugby Football”.
It is grossly misleading to say that the$2 million loan has been recouped, when that money has been used to pay for Carisbrook and not recovered from the sale process. The loan is really a red-herring. The loss to the Council is $7 million minus total sale proceeds, say $5 million, giving a $2 million loss, without considering holding costs.
There is more discussion on What if? Dunedin…
Dunedin City Councillor, Lee Vandervis, has responded to the report on the ODT of planned $9.1 million spending on the Stadium:
YOUR story “Planned stadium funding of $9.1m” (ODT, 30.1.13) for annual operations is shocking enough, but that is not all of it. There is also the $1,666,000 stadium differential rates reduction, the annual $1,050,000 service level payment to DVML (supposedly for operating the $40 million upgraded Dunedin Centre) and the uncountable hours of DCC staff time diverting millions to “make the stadium Work”. Unfortunately the stadium is not a Worker but a bludger.
If we really want to reduce the rot, We must get rid of the directors, security staff, fat guarantee maintenance contracts, parking staff, insurance policies, ORFU freebies, usher staff, corporate sweeteners, ticketing staff, the turf, grow lights, mowers, turf staff, fertilising, Watering systems and weather station, and bring in an artificial turf, dropped Wall skirts, and the volunteers that used to run Carisbrook. Elton John’s supposed $14 million economic impact was half local ticket sales, with Elton and production crew paying no rent and taking the other halfback out of Dunedin in costs. As the Massey authoritative research on We1língton’s Westpac Stadium concludes: “The vast majority of research into the economic impacts of sports stadiums and franchises fail to find any evidence of positive contributions of professional sports teams or stadium construction to employment, Wages/salaries and economic growth”. The operational millions now thrown annually at the stadium are simply entrenching an unaffordable cost structure for a stadium that has no Wider net economic benefit to Dunedin. Slashing operational costs as above is necessary to allow regular Stadium use.
Despite claims of “savings”, the Dunedin City Council’s operational spending budget is still increasing.
Overall operational costs had increased by just $500,000 as costs were cut in other areas
It seems to me that the “austerity” is largely a public-relations exercise. Any saving have been more than made up for by extra spending, resulting in an increase in operational spending of $0.5 million. There has been no serious attempt to trim back the many areas of unnecessary expenditure that have built up over the years. And the Council is still budgeting on significant rates rises year after year into the future. All this without even accounting for Stadium and DCHL losses.
The Dunedin City Council has made a decision which shows financial prudence. The bid for the 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup has been dropped, because the cost could have doubled to more than $1 million.
Let us hope that this is a start of a new policy of frugality.
The best posts that I’ve read this week:
Digest powered by RSS Digest
The best posts that I’ve read this week:
Digest powered by RSS Digest
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