The Upper Harbour Indoor Court Consultation has been completed and you can read about what the outcomes were below.

For more detail you can read the summary report.

Who did we talk to:

We received a total of 183 responses to this project; 75 responses to the Have Your Say online survey and 108 responses to the People’s Panel.

A presentation was made to the 4 March 2020 meeting of the Parks and Recreation – Mana Whenua North/West Iwi Forum.

We also engaged with regional sport codes covering the Upper Harbour area between December 2019 and March 2020 to understand their needs and requirements.

What did people say:

• The majority of respondents say they want to do activities at least once or twice per week
• There is a significant difference between the number of activities respondents say they want to do and what activities they currently do at least once per week
• The main barriers for respondents doing more activities currently are:
  1. cost of either transport to get to facilities and/or the cost of activities
  2. a lack of suitable facilities
  3. distance and time to travel to facilities
  4. time
  5. capacity at existing facilities – shortage of court time and availability
• We received online survey feedback on other activities respondents would like to see at the facility. Ancillary facilities such as a café, sauna and physiotherapist were mentioned the most but are out of scope for this facility.
• All the sport stakeholders are supportive of the provision of a four-court indoor court facility in the Upper Harbour area. Basketball, volleyball and futsal (indoor football) indicate that there is a high level of unmet demand for their sports that can be provided for at the new facility.

What did we do with the feedback:

The findings of the community, sport stakeholder and mana whenua engagement fed into the service requirements for the new facility:

Destination indoor court facilities often provide fitness activities like gyms for the local community. Gym facilities are not included in the service requirements for this facility as this will duplicate nearby provision. Space will be provided for fitness activities to meet future growth in activities

What was the decision:

On 21 May 2020, Upper Harbour Local Board

• received the key findings from the community engagement
• approved the service requirements
• approved Albany as the location for the proposed destination indoor court facility, progressing two site options through the detailed business case:
  1. Hooton Reserve west carpark, R 259 Oteha Valley Road,
  2. Albany Tennis Park, 321 Oteha Valley Road, as a potential facility partnership with Tennis Northern.

What do we do next:

• Complete a detailed business case
• Seek approval of funding and confirm timing of the new facility, subject to delays identified in the Emergency Budget 2020/2021.