The Star: May 09, 2019

The Star Thursday May 9 2019
6
NEWS
news online at www.star.kiwi
Gough wants to look at selling libraries
• By Julia Evans
POTENTIAL mayoral candidate
James Gough wants to investigate
the possibility of selling off
libraries and service centres.
Cr Gough said a conversation
should be had over whether
suburban libraries and service
centres, excluding Turanga, would
be a better asset if they were sold
to private investors, with the city
council as long-term lease holders.
The value of city council’s library
and service centre network
is $65.3 million.
“It would realise significant
revenue in the short-term to
assist with paying down debt
and reducing rates – but it would
also be essential that council
expenditure is significantly
reduced too,” he said.
However, Cr Gough said it
would have to be paired with
pared back capital and operational
spending to have the best
outcome to reduce rates.
“The proposal would need to be
a hand-in-glove approach where
increased revenue in the shortterm
was coupled with a significant
reduction in capital and
operational spending as well.”
Cr Gough has been a proponent
of asset sales.
But in September the city
council voted against a proposed
review into how much could
be made from selling stakes in
ASSETS: (Clockwise) – Fendalton, Bishopdale, Shirley and Upper Riccarton libraries.
businesses such as the Lyttelton
Port Company and broadband
provider Enable.
It is a conversation starter echoed
by the Canterbury Employers’
Chamber of Commerce in its
submission to the city council’s
Annual Plan based off a similar
model in Perth.
“I think there are opportunities
for the council to take a
good, hard look at some of the
assets that they do own and work
out whether or not they need
to own them or whether there
is a different model for that operation,”
chief executive Leeann
Watson said.
Ms Watson said it should be
looked at it on a case by case basis
– there should not be a “hard
and fast” model, which was supported
by Mayor Lianne Dalziel.
“I used the example of the
Linwood Library being in the
Eastgate Mall and the fact that
we jointly own this building with
Ngai Tahu,” Ms Dalziel said.
“It is enabling of people to
access the library in the same
hours that the mall is open.”
Cr Gough is considering running
for mayor .
“I’ll probably make an announcement
in the near future,”
he said.
The People’s Choice chairman
Keir Leslie, which opposes asset
sales, said libraries were a core
council business.
“The ideal that we would sell
off libraries in our own city . . .
would be a bad deal for the ratepayer
in the long run.”
Chase Commercial real estate
agent Brendan Chase said the
buildings would be “highly
saleable and sought after” with
a reliable and safe tenant in the
city council.
“The question to ask is are
those libraries going to be required
in the long-term, if they
are you’ll pay for them over and
over again,” Mr Chase said.
Cr Gough said the projected
rates increase of about 50 per
cent in the next 10 years is an
unsustainable “house of cards”
that would “epically fail.”
“Average incomes are not rising
anywhere near this quickly
so the system is fundamentally
broken.”
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