Wake up Joondalup

More than a year ago, Cr John Raftis asked the Audit and Risk Committee for a detailed review of the lease of Duncraig Leisure Centre (DLC) to the Churches of Christ Sport & Recreation Association Inc. (CCSRA).

 

The report finally comes before the Committee on Monday and concludes there are “no material concerns”.

 

I could not disagree more.

 

In my view, the City delivered a terrible deal for the community, and no amount of cherry-picking will change that.

 

CCSRA now pays about $4,300 a year to lease this community built, public asset. The community was promised “minimal impact”, with existing groups retaining their hire arrangements where possible.

Affordable? Not really.

The report compares DLC hire prices with figures vaguely labelled “City Charge”. In reality, these are a hybrid of the City’s highest Category A community-facility rates and prices charged at Craigie Leisure Centre.

 

Category A is the City’s top-tier rate. It generally applies to hiring for business or financial benefit, as well as non-commercial organisations with annual revenue above $10 million.

 

Category C applies to an ordinary person hiring for a non-commercial purpose or a community group with annual revenue below $3 million. It is the rate most relevant to local residents and small community groups.

 

The report leaves Category C out of the price comparisons entirely.

The City’s current Category C rate for a badminton court is 80 cents an hour. CCSRA charges $17.

A full court costs $3.50 under Category C. CCSRA charges $49.55, or $60.60 at peak times.

A City Category C small meeting room costs $1.75. Duncraig charges $22.

 

When the City leased out DLC, they said the centre was no longer a contemporary leisure centre and was better suited to operating as a community facility. Functionally, it is much closer to Heathridge and in my view, would be priced accordingly if it had not been leased out.

 

Instead, its prices are closer to Craigie, a modern, fully staffed leisure centre with pools, a gym, air-conditioning and extensive facilities.

It is difficult to see how that represents fairness or value for ratepayers.

 

The report also glosses over what happened to the people and groups the new arrangement was supposed to protect.

 

The gym and crèche went immediately. The badminton club left after losing reliable tenure, being pushed out during school holidays and finding cheaper, more reliable facilities in Stirling. The art group, the oldest in Joondalup, is gone.

 

Who knows who else gave up on the centre? Not the City.

Rather than treating these outcomes as evidence of whether the lease delivered community value, the report sanitises the departures and says a review of former users was not required.

 

Finally, the report fails to take seriously the City’s failure to enforce even the lease’s minimum oversight requirements.

 

CCSRA was required to provide annual financial statements and fee schedules. The City was required to review those charges annually against similar metropolitan facilities.

 

The report admits this did not happen consistently. Documents were gathered retrospectively, records of the City’s reviews remain limited, and yet it still lands on “no material concerns”.

 

If the Committee simply notes this report, it must at least note the mistakes and learn from them. Otherwise, what is the point?

 

At a minimum, we should expect:

• fair and transparent price comparisons

• a proper assessment of the effects on DLC users and former user groups

• an acknowledgement that oversight failed

• reliable systems proposed to ensure the lease requirements are actually enforced

 

We have leased away a public facility for nominal rent and made it harder and more expensive for the community to use.

 

To put it as generously as I can, this was a grave mistake.

If there really are “no material concerns” here, there damn well should be.

 

Comparison table and supporting documents in the comments.