By Dale Budge
Local Board chairman Andy Baker is helping resolve the feud between Franklin Basketball and Belgravia Leisure, who run the Franklin Pool and Leisure Centre.
The local facility is struggling to cater for the fast-growing sport of basketball as well as the numerous other community groups that need access to indoor courts and prompted some public venting in the past couple of weeks.
Baker was dragged into the dispute last week and will attempt to mediate in the short-term as well as instigate some conversations with relevant parties about a longer-term solution.
“My role, after being copied in on a number of long and emotive emails, was to set an expectation from the Local Board that the parties actually met face to face as opposed to sending those emails, which just seemed to make matters worse,” Baker told Counties Sports Hub.
“This has been agreed and a meeting date and time is being worked on now, although not landed on yet, which will shortly result in another request from me that it be given some urgency as there are obvious impacts on the club and other centre users the longer it is unresolved.
“I want it sorted.”
Baker is the first to acknowledge that the demand has outgrown the Franklin Pool and Leisure Centre in its current form and that everyone needs to work together to improve that longer term.
“What it has highlighted is that we have a deficiency in indoor court space in the area. With sports like basketball growing incredibly fast alongside our expanding population in both Franklin and neighbouring North Waikato, we need to seriously sit down as Auckland Council and also Waikato Council to see how we can try to address the shortfall of facilities. There are obviously options we need to consider – extend what we have at the Franklin Pool & Leisure Centre in Pukekohe to create capacity at the main facility, look at creating satellite facilities in areas of new development, collaboration with the likes of Ministry of Education as we have done in Waiuku to use existing facilities, this could also include private schools such as Wesley College, build a new fit for purpose facility to replace or supplement what already exists.
“All of these require large sums of money and currently there is nothing within the Auckland Council 10-year plan. That needs to change and there will be an opportunity to try to get it in when the next 10-year budget is consulted on next year.
“Conversations now is really important so after the elections, the elected reps can start doing what they need to do.”
Whatever steps are taken there will be no quick fix to this problem and Baker said it is imperative that all parties talk and try to work together.
“In the interim we just need to deal with what we have, ensuring the publicly owned facility is open for use by the public and balancing the needs of everyone in an open and equitable way.
“Hopefully the face-to-face meeting will be held with good intent and come up with a solid and agreed way of working together.”
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