Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark leads opposition to Eden Park's concert plans

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark is among opponents of Eden Park’s plans to stage concerts at a planning hearing that begins on Monday.

The 60,000-capacity Auckland venue, the largest in New Zealand, is seeking to stage up to six concerts a year as a means of raising extra revenue.

While it is currently able to stage concerts, the venue's managers must submit individual applications on each occasion in what has previously proved a lenghty process that has deterred promoters.

The Eden Park Trust Board’s application, which was submitted last December, is being considered by independent hearings commissioners.

With the hearing to begin on Monday, the plan has been backed by Auckland Council, which said the proposals are in step with the city’s economic strategy.

Auckland Council principal planner, Hayden Wadams, has recommended noise level restrictions, monitoring, limited hours for setting up and dismantling stages, and improved community liaison as conditions of approval.

A report on the proposal advised "there are notable positive effects particularly at a regional scale, in terms of social, economic and cultural wellbeing, which must be balanced against identified adverse effects.

“The proposal is generally consistent with the AUP (Auckland Unitary Plan) objectives and policies relating to the use of major recreation facilities.”

The overwhelming majority of the 3,100 submissions that have been made ahead of the hearing are in favour of the plan, with 2,966 in favour and just 180 against. However, former Prime Minister Clark, who has lived near the venue since the 1980s and opposed previous proposals for events at Eden Park, is among the local residents to have expressed their opposition.

Clark, the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, has been given a 30-minute slot to present her case next Wednesday.

The Eden Park Neighbours’ Association said in its submission that the six concerts of up to 60,000 people at a time would not only be bigger than the once-or-twice-a-year All Black tests, but would also bring up to 10 days of truck convoys and 24-hour ‘unpacking’ of containers of stages and equipment.

In making the application last year, the Eden Park Trust Board said the staging of music events is a vital part of securing the stadium’s future after Auckland Council in March 2019 approved a $63 million bailout for the venue.

The Trust claims that an application for a single concert currently costs $100,000 and can take up to 18 months to realise.

In 2018, plans for a charity concert that was to have been headlined by Phil Collins were shelved due to time constraints and the prospect of substantial Environment Court costs to consent an individual event.

Speaking last year, Trust Chairman Doug McKay stated "we have to get our concerts to get more financially independent, to be able to afford over and above what the council is giving us support for.

“There’s a lot to do at the Park, and we need a new source of revenue.”

Image: Eden Park's external lighting - as upgraded in 2018.