Stuff
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/6918090/Stadium-row-triggers-call...
By Wilma McCorkindale • 14/05/2012
Dunedin city councillors are settling into their monthly meeting this afternoon amid calls for resignations because of budget blowouts on the city's new Forsyth Barr stadium.
A full public gallery has come armed with placards saying "Resign" raising them high in the air each time one of the pro-stadium city councillors stands to speak.
Dunedin ratepayers were told last week they would have to stump up millions extra for the stadium.
Councillors will be discussing the six-month-old stadium's financial woes this afternoon.
Dunedin can't pretend to do a better job
Editorial • 10/01/2012
Christchurch people who have travelled to other New Zealand cities since February 22 last year have reported a curious sensation.
Read full editorial including comments to The Press.
Rebuild it in Dunedin!
Blog Idle by Moata Tamaira • 09/01/2012
I have always been amused by the childish and slightly embarrassing competitiveness that exists between New Zealand's various towns and cities as expressed by its mayors and city councillors. You know the sort of thing, where any time there's the chance to be seen to have the advantage over another centre some local elected representative will wantonly laud it over the other.
Read full opinion including comments to Stuff.
Parker dismisses abandoning city
By Ben Heather • 07/01/2012
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker has hit out at suggestions that rebuilding earthquake-hit Christchurch should be abandoned in favour of a super-sized Dunedin.
Read full article including comments to The Press.
City's broken heart needs a bypass
07/01/2012
OPINION: Dunedin City councillor LEE VANDERVIS says it is time to rebuild Christchurch ... in Dunedin.
`When will it end?" contains the assumption that the earthquakes in Christchurch will end. We all hope the damaging earthquakes have ended, of course, but recent geotechnical and historical evidence suggests otherwise.
Stadium strains Dunedin council's budget
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5550946/Stadium-strains-Dunedin-councils-budget
Wilma McCorkindale • DScene • 1 September 2011
Dunedin City councillors have been warned that not only is the city struggling to finance its brand new stadium, it may also not be able to afford to maintain the controversial venue.
The report recommended any surplus cash flows generated by the DCC or its holding company, Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL), over the next 10 years, go to reducing stadium debt. "That is mind-boggling,'' Cr Lee Vandervis, a stadium opponent, said. "This is saying that any spare cash, anywhere, all goes to the stadium. That is every spare dollar that might show up in any budget in the DCC or DCHL over the next 10 years. There will not be one dollar for anything else.'' Another recommendation has the DCC pushing stadium debt from 20 years out to 40 years. "That adds an obscene $115 million in interest charges to the cost of the Stadium,'' Vandervis said, "and the figures say we must push out to 40 years because it is no longer possible for DVL to repay the debt over 20 years. "The stadium is a marvel of engineering, but desperately needs a financial marvel to pay for it.'' Vandervis was also steaming over a proposal that council consider deferring maintenance on the stadium for five years. "That is saying that basically we're broke - let's not have any money put aside for any maintenance. We might not have any for the next five years,'' Vandervis said. "For a $200m plus stadium building, to not have the money available for maintenance, especially for teething problems you quite often get for a new and quite innovative structure, is just downright irresponsible,'' he said. The report also recommends the DCC consult with ratepayers for a $1m hike in rates to reduce 40 years of planned borrowing for the $198m stadium. The committee meets on Monday to discuss the report. Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said he had not read the report and would not comment before it had been discussed by the committee anyway.
Dunedin stadium opponent beaten
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/28028/Dunedin-stadium-opponent-beaten
The Christchurch Press • 19 October 2007
Carisbrook anti-redevelopment campaigner Lee Vandervis has lost his Dunedin City Council (DCC) seat after the counting of special votes.
Vandervis believes his Carisbrook chickens have come home to roost.
Preliminary results for the city's Hills Ward put him four votes ahead of Fliss Butcher. However, the final vote tally has seen him fall behind Butcher by the same amount, with 1976 votes to her 1980.
Vandervis told Butcher yesterday: "The delay of a recount is not something I will trouble you with".
His bid for the Dunedin mayoralty also failed. Encumbent Peter Chin was re-elected, gaining 21,412 votes in the final count compared with Vandervis's 6825.
Vandervis told The Press he had no illusions his high-profile campaign on future plans for Carisbrook and pledges to limit council bureaucracy and ensure open decision-making and consultation before major spending were responsible for him losing both bids.
The DCC passed a series of resolutions in June to set a path for the Carisbrook Stadium Trust and approve a $188 million budget for the project, proposed for a new location close to Otago University on the road to Port Chalmers.
"The people of the Hills Ward, like the rest of the city, had plenty of opportunity to know where I was coming from.
"I had the audacity to put forward strong views regarding the stadium.
"I don't blame people for taking the party line.
"I tried to the best of my ability to tell them what was going on, and I'm pleased about that.
"I tried to save the ratepayer that incredible drain on the finances.
"I'm happy I said what the truth was."
He did not believe "any of Dunedin's elected representatives have made any difference at all to any decisions" made by DCC chief executive Jim Harland.
City Hall would be "having an enormous party" now he was leaving, Vandervis said.
In an email to Butcher, he said she might now be the "lone voice against the stupidity of the proposed stadium".
"I still believe in `tell the people – trust the people', but I do not believe that the people of Dunedin have been told most of what they should know."
However, Butcher said she would not be carrying the Carisbrook torch for Vandervis.
"It never was a hot topic for me," she said..
"I came out ages ago and said I don't think it's a good idea, and that's all there is to it.
"The business case doesn't stack up, (and) I think it's in the wrong place.
"No, I'm sorry that won't work – we've already had big promoters saying, `we don't care what you do in Dunedin, (even) put a big roof over it, we are not going to be bringing X to Dunedin'."
