Council loan agreed to help Oxford fitness centre grow

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter

The Waimakariri District Council has agreed to loan $200,000 so the Oxford Health and Fitness Centre Trust can start a 153m2 expansion of its facility at Pearson Park.

The existing 322 square metre building is owned by the trust, which leases the community fitness centre to the North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust to run.

The expansion will support the fitness centre’s growing membership, which now exceeds 400, trust chairperson Tim Fulton said.

The trust has already raised $55,000 and has a contractor lined up for the build, which is expected to cost $283,000.

It had applied to the Rata Foundation for funding but was unsuccessful.

‘‘The facility is well-used and needs more space, so we feel the risk is relatively low,’’ the council’s community and recreation general manager Chris Brown said.

‘‘The worst case scenario is, if the trust is wound up, the building will pass over to the council and we will have a good community asset.’’

The council will borrow the money on the trust’s behalf, with the trust paying it off over 10 years at an interest rate of 4.65% to cover the council’s costs, Brown said.

Responding to a question at last week’s council meeting, chief executive Jeff Millward said the council was well within its self-imposed borrowing limit of 250% of its rates revenue.

‘‘We could borrow another $150 million and still be within our limit.’’

The council’s debt is about $200m, around 150% of its rates revenue, with a large chunk of it being due to borrowing $100m to repair and replace assets following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.

The North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust manages five fitness centres in Rangiora (two), Kaiapoi and Amberley, as well as the Oxford facility.

The proceeds are used to fund community programmes such as sports coaching in schools and initiatives to help people improve their health.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.