Wellington Sports Say Hutt Mayor Has ‘Double-Crossed’ Sportspeople

A collective of Wellington sports organisations say Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry has ‘double crossed’ sportspeople, after he reneged this week on an election promise to independently review the Council’s sports ground charges.

In an email to the Affordable Sports campaign in July last year, Mayor Barry said he was “happy to agree in principle [to an independent review] at a regional level.”

HCC Councillors Brady Dyer, Josh Briggs, Keri Brown, Karen Morgan, Glenda Barratt, Gabriel Tupou, Naomi Shaw and Andy Mitchell also made election promises to review the fees, making up 9 out of the 13 people on Council.

This week the mayor cut in front of those councillors, emailing the Affordable Sports campaign saying he would only “consider these matters as part of our own wider review into sports grounds.”

In short, the HCC review would not be independent, and would be tacked on to an existing wider review of council facilities, which could take years.

Capital Football CEO Richard Reid said sportspeople in the region would be justified in thinking the mayor pulled the wool over their eyes during the election.

“It shows it was an empty promise, made to satisfy sportspeople so he could walk back into his seat at the head of the council table.

“Campbell Barry has essentially double-crossed sportspeople in Lower Hutt.

“He’s also cut off any chance of the other councillors making good on their promise. “For fees to be equitable across the region, all councils must participate in the independent review”.

The Hutt Council now sits with Kapiti as outlying councils, while Porirua, Upper Hutt and Wellington have all pledged to participate in a review of the raw costs behind the high fees charged for the use of sport facilities.

ENDS

Contact Capital Football CEO Richard Reid: 021 944 201

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