Wellington City Council backs attractions management CCO to cut costs

A proposal to bring environmental attractions Zealandia, Wellington Zoo, Otari-Wilton Bush and the city's Botanic Gardens into a single management organisation has been agreed by a Wellington City Council Committee.

In a meeting lasting more than five hours, the Council's Strategy and Policy Committee approved a working party's recommendation that a council-controlled organisation (CCO), known as the 'Eco City', be established as part of a rescue bid for the struggling Zealandia/Karori Sanctuary.

The option will cost ratepayers $1.3 million over three years with the four attractions bringing "synergies" and cost savings within the organisation, councillors were told.

The working group was set up to review a funding request from the Karori Sanctuary Trust of $950,000 a year for the three years.

The other three options put forward by the working party - creating a CCO just for Zealandia; creating a CCO for the zoo and Zealandia together; or bringing Zealandia in-house as part of the parks and gardens management - will also be presented to the public for comment.

While the Councillors agreed Zealandia was a great asset to the city, they also said it was struggling and a new governance structure was essential. Agreeing on which structure that should be was more difficult.

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown backed the 'Eco City' CCO option, stating "we can't be putting in more and more money into a whole lot of institutions without thinking how we can get the best value."

However, Zealandia Chairwoman Catherine Isaac has questioned the move, saying there would be little cohesion between the operations.

Isaac, who conceded that Zealandia had overestimated the numbers its new $16 million visitor centre would draw, suggested that the organisation was still performing well, and it would prefer to see the status quo maintained, with extra grants from the Council.

Isaac stated "(the) Council has not fully understood the nature of the sanctuary's operations, its ethos, and the fact that it is a community conservation project with a very lean management structure and a heavy reliance on volunteers, members and community goodwill.

"It is hard to see any efficiencies from merging the sanctuary into a 'super' CCO with organisations with quite different target markets, product offerings, objectives and cultures, as proposed in the options being put forward.

"We do not believe that the potential savings identified in the options being proposed can in fact be realised, and, more importantly, we are very concerned about the risk of losing volunteers and the support of members and donors. This would in turn erode our ability to boost visitor numbers and ultimately become financially self-sustaining, and to fund and pursue our conservation and education objectives."

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