Waikaraka Park Secure 30 year lease. (Read 5,070 times)

All i can say is ,YIPPEE!!!

Yes well done to Wade & Co, 30 years of tenure is a great achievement. Might have to book myself into a plot next door to keep an eye on developments.

Yesterday's decision by the local council board to grant a 30 year lease over Waikaraka Park to the Auckland Stock & Saloon Car Club comes as extremely welcome news, and I must say quite a bit of relief.

To say our club has been facing some significant risks over the last 6 years would be a sizeable understatement.

I am just happy we were able to honour the good people who have put so much time into the place since 1967 by giving future generations of racers a place to call home, improve and look after.

It was often difficult to read some of the less than favourable opinions and comments about the facilities at Waikaraka Park during the wild speculation and debate going on across town. There was probably a nicer way to say it, but there is no arguement the facilities are in a pretty poor condition, except for the race track which remains superb. The thing we could not say back then is our old lease was expiring and the council were not interested in discussing a new one. 2019 was the collision of the Western Springs last scheduled race and the end of our lease and it was coming up fast. The grandstand had just been left, the toilets were closed, attendance figures were down, it made no sense to spend any money to improve things without a new lease in discussion - we were very much up against it and sensing the planned closure of Western Springs was going to end up a "two for one deal" if we did not take the situation seriously.

Rather than come out fightng and have our message lost in the considerable noise at the time, we decided to quietly line up the roadblocks to a new lease and take them on one at a time. The media were running with a well constructed narrative at the time which tended to cast us as a villain every time we were asked for comment to confuse the issues. We learnt pretty quickly to say no to journalists. If you don't know what I mean about the narrative, go and re-read the one by Craig Lord about the promoter tender at Western Springs which speculated the Waikaraka Park Masterplan was part of a consipracy to do with that outcome - see if you can spot the only person he did not have to ask for comment. That sort of mischief and others making stuff up like "people would get killed if they drove on a stock car track" at a public council meeting to do with Western Springs was not very helpful to say the least - I still can't believe someone would be that stupid to say something like that in front of a health and safety / liability phobic landlord. However, we were already very organised and focussed on our own path toward the lease.

Grandstand - RFA look at Waikaraka Park - Grandstand again - Reclassification of a parcel of land over by the cemetery - Heritage team not wanting to demolish the grandstand - Reserve management Plan - Heritage team told to find $26m to restore the grandstand or cool their jets - Grandstand demolition - Masterplan - Public 'have your say' processes and making sure we had enough support to head off the Onehunga NIMBYs. Every roadblock to a lease taken on one at a time and dealt with to keep moving forward, and all the time maintaining a good relationship with everyone at council we had contact with.

There was a lot we could not say on monitored social media - when we needed support we could not explain exactly what was going on, we just had to ask for it and trusted the speedway community would provide it. And they did - without it there was still risk the masterplan could have been overturned. The Auckland Unitary Plan has Waikaraka Park as a motorsport precinct - not a "speedway precinct". Getting through that last process with the masterplan intact was not guaranteed without the support that came. So a huge thank you to the speedway community - you have all been part of this success.

The Reserve Management Plan and Masterplan were the final hoops to jump through to get to the lease. The masterplan was finally approved without change by council on February 23 this year - nothing left to block the way to a new lease and you know the rest.

From September 12, 2014 when the grandstand was closed until March 23, 2021 when the new lease was given is 6 years and 190 days. Throughout this entire time we have remained coorporative, helpful, open, communicative and understanding with the council. Even though it was often frustrating, it has been a case study in relationship building.

If anyone doubts the value of that, let me just say one final thing. The standard maximum lease Auckland Council is providing to sports clubs is 20 years (10 + 10). The elected representaitves (the people we have been talking to and working with over this time) have discretion over the length of the lease. We asked for 30 years at the meeting yesterday - there was no discussion, they just changed it on the spot and added another 10 years as an act of goodwill. The true value of maintaining a good relationship through all those difficult years was realized in 30 seconds at the end.

Onward and upward from here - hopefully those who had a negative opinion of the facilities in the past might visit us when things are looking new and shiny in the future.

Wade, I couldn’t be happier for the ASSCC and yourself. I am one of those that go to almost every meeting across town but I also go to other tracks including WP 3 or 4 times a year. I have publicly stated I thought the public and drivers deserved better facilities than those provided by the council. I sincerely hope you get vastly upgraded stands, toilets etc.

I would also be very disappointed if WS and WP were merged. They generally cater to different audiences with a few exceptions, although I hope both can cooperate a little better in the future with Bruce at the helm of both.

Well done and onwards and upwards.

Absolutely fantastic news. To all those involved well done and thank you!!

This is fantastic news for one of Auckland's most historic motorsport venues.

Question tho; is the rumour I just made up true, that Frank wore a tie?

Well done to all,

Hooncorp.

May I also offer my congratulations to all you tireless workers at WP.

As someone said earlier, you played the long game and won.

After reading Wade's piece, I guess it's safe to say a certain gumflapper won't be getting in the announcer's box at Onehunga anytime soon.

Yup I'll give you a run down on whats going to happen, a few very good people are going to sit back for a short while and chill out and let the stress of it all wear off, while the rest of us celebrate their success and in a short while plans will emerge. Awesome job. As a former life long salesman I So respect Wades mantra of relationships. If you cant talk happily with people how will they ever understand your position and more importantly vice versa?

Done. Painless. Cheers Wade.