Council Approves Equestrian Park's $250k Irrigation System Despite Criticism

Tuesday, 24 December 2024, 8:10 pm
Article: Maia Hart - Local Democracy Reporter

Automatic irrigation for Marlborough Equestrian Park will be funded by the council, despite two Blenheim councillors questioning the community benefit given the park's "exclusive" nature.

The Marlborough Equestrian Park made a request to the council's Long Term Plan (LTP) earlier this year for the irrigation system, to allow them to ditch their labour-intensive manual watering.

At an assets and services committee meeting in November, the committee were asked to approve a grant of $250,000 for a new irrigation system, less than the $325,000 previously thought after further quotes were sought.

When full council went to sign off on that decision on December 13, Blenheim ward councillor Matt Flight raised some concerns.

Flight had voted against the recommendation to approve the $250,000 from the council's land subdivision account at the November committee meeting but did not say why.

At the December 13 meeting he explained the decision "didn't feel right".

He said a number of other groups had requested funding through the LTP for projects of "equally good quality", but the council told them "sorry not this time".

As a result Flight said he did not think it was a good idea to give the funding to the Marlborough Equestrian Park.

"I think it was probably more prudent to say this time, 'hey look, we like what you are proposing, but I think for now we stay the status quo' and just postpone it to another date or a later time," he said.

Millions of dollars in funding was requested through this year's LTP in submissions from groups such as the Marlborough Netball Club, the Picton Dawn Chorus, the Marlborough Youth Trust, the Blenheim Polo Club, the Rapaura Tennis Club and the Havelock Museum Society.

Blenheim ward councillor Jonathan Rosene said he also voted against the funding, however he was not sure if that was caught at the committee meeting as he attended via video due to being sick.

"It really was about a cost benefit analysis from my point of view," Rosene said.

"It was an extremely large sum of money for what was being asked for and I just kind of went through a mental checklist about how it felt and sat with me, based on other things we might say no to - but yes to a sprinkler system?

"It just didn't seem to bring us any closer to any real solution for the wider community, it felt very, I guess, exclusive. Those were the reasons why I would like to vote against [it]."

The Marlborough Equestrian Park, an incorporated society, opened a decade ago in Spring Creek.

Internal fundraising and a council grant funded a yard big enough to house 54 horses, an ablution block, a shed and two judges' boxes.

It's development was first proposed in council's 2010 Outdoor Sport Facilities Plan.

The park's independent chairperson Tim Crawford said during LTP consultation that irrigation was the last thing that needed sorting.

The park had employed a groundskeeper who watered the arenas usually twice a day. To keep the grass green also required volunteers to pitch in too, Crawford said.

"It involves somebody running around with a travelling irrigator," Crawford said.

"This last year has really highlighted the issue. We were so dry, we're just not able to cover the amount of area that we need... and it involves a lot of labour, which is something we don't have a lot of."

The submission to the LTP said automated irrigation was needed to ensure the park was safe, successful and popular. The aim was to create "New Zealand's most popular equestrian park".

The council approved the funding, but Flight and Rosene asked to have their vote against it recorded.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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