Rugby Union to lead ground charge protest

Press, 22 February 1977, Page 1

Rugby Union to lead ground charge protest

Steps will again be taken by the Canterbury Rugby Union to try to have Christchurch local bodies reconsider proposed rises for sports ground rentals this year.

The uhion’s management committee last evening asked one of its members, Mr B. J. Drake, to try to arrange a meeting with other affected sports bodies as Mr Drake has done on previous occasions before leading a joint approach to the Christchurch City Council.

The meeting was told that in 1974 the rental for L..e rugby ground for a season was $39. There had b-en two rises since and this year a third was expected to take the charge to $lO2.

“This surely beats the rate of inflation,” said the

union’s treasurer, Mr J. K. Torrance), adding that additional payment had to be made for the marking of the grounds.

Mr R. W. Thomas said the union could not just sit back and accept the proposed rises. “We are doing something for the young people of the community and the way the rentals are rising the burden will soon become too great for clubs to carry. It is not just ideological nonsense to say we are helping youth; if clubs lose their enthusiasm there will be more trouble on the streets than there is now.” Mr Drake said the question had become semipolitical, with each council watching what the other was doing. He doubted if much progress could be made until people saw city grounds simply as facilities for sport and not something for which the

user-pays principle must apply.

Mr G. G. Don advised some “stick rattling” and his first suggestion was that Christchurch members of Parliament be invited to participate in any planned meetings. “You will not get anywhere talking to council officers, who although they may be sympathetic to the cause, and some are, are servants of the council and merely carry out the decisions and policies of the council. Only by going to the top, the Government. will you get anywhere,” he said. Mr N. K. Fraser predicted that the question of sports ground charges could become a “hot potato” in the lead-up to this year’s local body elections.

Mr Thomas said the question should be above politics. “It is the youth of

the country that is at stake and we have got to convince the councils of this fact.”

The discussion then turned to the rights of the councils to charge at al) for use of public grounds, or what some members considered to be “selective” charging.

“Why not put toll gates on all parks so that any group, or rabble, that goes in them pays?” asked Mr W. A. Russell. If maintenance was a consideration then there should be an entrance fee to the Botanic Gardens, said Mr Torrance.

“When the forefathers tramped over the hill and established Christchurch they never intended that the sports grounds they set aside should be paid for,” said Mr Don. “They were meant for the enjoyment of all and not to be used on a user-pays basis.”