Cut to the bone

FOR ART'S SAKE: Dion Hichens' unfinished sculpture on Rototuna's Resolution Dr, the only public art work funded by the Hamilton City Council. (IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times)

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/features/1392980

07 February 2009

By TRACEY COOPER

Hamilton City Council last week took the axe to many of its smaller projects.

Kowhai planting by the Waikato River was cut back and funding for public art was axed altogether. Meanwhile, a shiny new edifice, the $68 million Claudelands Events Centre remains on the books. Has the council got the balance right? Tracey Cooper examines the fallout.

Three years ago on a chilly Waikato day in June, the city's elected officials trooped down to the Waikato River below the Museum of Art and History to mark the realisation of a long-held dream for Hamilton iwi consultant Wiremu Puke.

Puke had written columns in the Waikato Times floating his idea to plant thousands of kowhai on the riverbanks to restore them to their former glory.

The combined blooming in early September would bathe the banks in a magnificent golden hue and provide a visual harbinger of better weather ahead and mark the beginning of a new planting season.

In January 2005, he optimistically wrote that kowhai could become an iconic symbol for a festival that could ultimately rival the cherry blossom festival in Japan.

"Just visualise, for a moment, a profusion of kowhai trees and their flowers of various shades of yellow and gold, with its greatest concentration along the public river walkways through Hamilton city," he wrote.

The idea struck a chord with the community and received widespread support.

In July 2005, Nga Mana Toopu o Kirikiriroa, the advisory group Puke works with, received $20,000 from the Hamilton City Council to plant 500 kowhai along the river bank.

The following June, the plantings became official, with the council hosting an early-morning ceremony for the planting of 350 more kowhai.

Then-mayor, now Hamilton City Council chief executive Michael Redman, said at the ceremony that the trees "will be one of the symbols of our identity".

"We want the kowhai to be synonymous with Hamilton. To see the waterfront in a blaze of yellow will be tremendous."

Indeed, it would.

The idea was to plant 350 kowhai a year and to show its commitment, the council budgeted an average of about $20,000 a year for the next 10 years in its Long Term Council Community Plan.

While there have been some casualties among the plantings, most of the kowhai planted so far are slowly making their presence felt among the other trees, bushes and shrubs which make the riverbanks a peaceful, lush haven from the bustling city streets above.

But the pragmatic Puke was disappointed to learn this week that the planting budget has now been cut in half as the council takes the pruning shears to the books in light of the current global recession.

"Yeah (it's disappointing) but that's the reality, right across the board measures have to be taken," Puke says.

"Regardless of the fact that the money has been halved, the opportunity is still there for people to plant kowhai on the banks of the river."

Kowhai "can only enhance the river walkway and bring more birdlife into the city".

And Puke says the council could change its mind about the funding if people make a noise about the issue.

"There is still the opportunity for the general public to put in submissions to council as part of the Long Term Council Community Plan."

There's a perception that submissions make little difference to councils who have already made up their minds, but city councillor Gordon Chesterman, who wanted the tree plantings to retain their full funding, says it's possible to change council's view with sound, well researched arguments.

"I don't go into meetings with any fixed ideas," he says in his sunny office overlooking the Waikato River on Tuesday morning.

"I'm prepared to listen to a good argument. I've seen councillors change their views because of good advocacy."

Chesterman spoke out at last week's Hamilton City Council meeting where about 90 community projects and capital works were moved into the "unfunded" category while big ticket items such as the $68 million Claudelands Events Centre were given the green light.

Small projects were "paying the price" for Claudelands, he told the meeting.

"I think we should be thinking more about the people who actually live in the city instead of creating a brand. It's the small things people care about."

The kowhai plantings are an example of the small things Chesterman's referring to "these don't cost a lot, yet achieve a lot" and also an example of council talking the talk but not walking the walk, he says.

"We (councillors) all went down there and dug holes for a photo opportunity. We told Wiremu (Puke) we were into it.

"That's not an expensive project."

But, as Puke points out, at least the kowhai planting is still in the budget.

Among the projects, large and small, that miss out the list runs to three pages are the Chartwell library expansion, additional kennels at the Animal Control Centre, Beale Cottage restoration, Hamilton Gardens pavilion upgrade, Taitua Arboretum development, the RS Rangiriri, Waiwhakareke natural heritage park development, the Riff Raff precinct redevelopment, the Gallagher Aquatic Centre learners' pool, the zoo savannah rhino exhibit, a green building action plan for council facilities, stage two of the Knox St carpark, fish ladders for culverts, improvement to the water treatment station and, perhaps most contentiously, $1.1 million for public art.

The city has made much of its commitment to public art in the past few years much of it on the back of thespian Mark Servian's push to have a Riff Raff statue erected in the city.

Riff Raff was seen as a test case for the council's arts in public places policy, which was adopted in 2003, with the popular statue unveiled a year later.

At the time, community and leisure chair Pippa Mahood said it was a coming of age for the city. But while the policy which won a Creative New Zealand award in 2005 has been in place for six years, it did not include provisions for funding public art.

Both Riff Raff and the sculpture outside Hamilton Gardens were funded privately.

The only council-funded public artwork which has yet to be completed provides an unfortunate and stark reminder of the problems facing council budgets.

Dion Hitchens' $150,000 sculpture sits on a barren roundabout in Rototuna, surrounded by burnt-off paddocks, concrete stormwater pipes waiting to be installed, new street lights, well-tended gardens,
underpasses, footpaths and seating.

But there's barely a house to be seen anywhere near.

The until-now rapid development of the northeastern suburbs has largely fuelled council spending, bringing in valuable development contributions to council coffers and allowing it to fund things such as public art.

But building consents are down dramatically and development contributions which account for millions of dollars of projected revenue have effectively halved in the current year.

Without that money, there's no way the council can afford to fund everything it wants to and the situation is so dire, deputy chief executive Blair Bowcott says it's the toughest budget he's worked on in 10 years.

Because the sculpture an impressive collection of seven stylised waka pointing skywards is in such a remote part of the city, most people will never see it, and it's unlikely there will be more artworks commissioned now that the public arts budget has been cut.

That disappoints the city's arts community, particularly at a time when something such as public art can help lift the spirits of residents struggling through tough economic times.

To put it bluntly, Servian says the purpose of public art is to "make a place worth living in".

"It's about building spaces that make people want to hang out in them."

Hamilton Community Arts Council arts manager Tracey Wood agrees and says arts "can help keep people's hopes alive".

"It helps to give people some belief that the city cares about its arts. These are the things that can make the difference," she says.

A disappointed Wood agrees cuts had to be made somewhere.

"I think there is an awareness that there isn't enough putea (money) but it is how we balance all these things. We can find $60 million to fund an events centre and $200,000 (for public art) was such a small amount."

No one's denying times are tough and cuts needed to be made to avoid far bigger rates rises than the projected 4.98 per cent in Hamilton.

But when Claudelands gets the $68 million go-ahead and $20 million is found for another indoor sports stadium, the arts community justifiably feels aggrieved at losing its almost paltry in comparison budget.

Chesterman concedes the point and says the arts appear "easy targets".

He's not against the Claudelands development, but it does "suck a lot of money", he says.

"We've taken out this wonderful thing in favour of more hard-nosed things."

Chesterman says the cuts are typical of the city, which always seems in a rush to move on to new projects without finishing the old ones.

"We've got a history of not finishing the job. Look at the Meteor, it's not finished off. We put up with mediocrity because we're always pushing to go on with the next thing.

"Why not finish Beale Cottage?"

He says when people realise the full extent of the cuts they "will be very disappointed".

"Unless a miracle occurs I think they're a lost cause. There's no short answer other than putting rates up."

And that's as unpalatable now as it is when the economy is booming.

Chesterman would prefer to see rates set at inflation plus 2 per cent to allow for development and this year's rates rise in Hamilton will only cover inflation, depreciation and Claudelands, which accounts for only 0.4 per cent of the 4.98 per cent increase.

That compares favourably with other Waikato councils, all of which are struggling to balance the books.

ENVIRONMENT Waikato chairman Peter Buckley says the regional council is looking at a rates rise of 4 per cent on the back of some "tough decisions".

"I'm disappointed that we can't do business as normal but in today's uncertain economic times we've got to show control. We've got to look hard at what we do."

Spending on air quality is being cut back and the council will not meet the Government's target standards by the prescribed 2013.

"We are taking out costs from right across the board but some things we have to keep going."

Two days of budgets discussions turned into three and Buckley says there were some tough decisions made.

"It's a whole balancing act."

In Matamata-Piako, they've just completed their planning and are indicating a general rates rise of just 1.98 per cent.

Mayor Hugh Vercoe says the council took advantage of falling interest rates to refinance and wanted a long-term plan that was "business as usual".

"We're saying it's not the time for new capital projects. We'd like to have new pools and velodromes and all that sort of thing but it's not the time."

Waikato Mayor Peter Harris agrees lower interest rates have helped and the Ngaruawahia-based council has borrowed an extra $1.25 million to keep its seal extension programme on track.

"Roading takes up 51 per cent of our budget and new seal is about $3.5 million a year. We hope to do about six kilometres per year (of new seal)."

The focus on infrastructure is deliberate and Harris says he's "very comfortable with where we are at".

"Rates will increase by just under 5 per cent I think. It's been a hell of a job to get to where we've got to."

In Waipa, Mayor Alan Livingston and his council meet early next week to consider budgets.

"Management are working on it to prune it back so it's aligned with the current situation.

"It's always going to disappoint someone."

The council was committed to the Karapiro Domain upgrade and Maungatautari but "there are others on the list that obviously we will look at".

The new covered and heated pool for Cambridge could be a casualty, he says.

Thames Coromandel Mayor Philippa Barriball says they "pulled back very hard" on spending in the district.

Of the council budget, 85 per cent goes on water, wastewater, stormwater and roading, and, while the stormwater budget took a hit, "there's only 15 per cent of budget left" and most people expect the priority work to be done.

She said the saddest part of the process had been cutting community grants.

"It's only a little bit of money but it's critical to those organisations," she says.

Barriball says rates in the district would rise between 7 and 8 per cent.

"Inevitably we get people coming in saying `put our project back on' but what we say is `where are your priorities?'."

In Hamilton, those priorities do not appear to include the arts, although one council insider points out that Claudelands is not only for sport but will also host concerts and other arts events.

But that doesn't wash with Wood.

"It hasn't been designed with that in mind. For those of us working in the industry, it's not purpose-built."