Foster to drop appeal in deal with mayor

Rebel councillor Andy Foster is set to withdraw his appeal against a $46 million indoor sports centre after striking a backroom deal with Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast.

Mr Foster has accepted an offer from the mayor to do a new review of the preferred site for the 12-court centre, currently earmarked for Kilbirnie's Cobham Park.

The offer is conditional on Mr Foster agreeing to withdraw his Environment Court appeal.

It may not end the controversy, however, as the review does not deal with an appeal by Wellington resident Mike Mellor, which could still result in the issue heading to court.

Ms Prendergast and Mr Foster have been at war since he appealed against the decision by independent commissioners to approve the 12-court Kilbirnie centre.

The appeal could have delayed the project for up to 18 months. The council has spent about $3 million so far on the Cobham Park proposal.

Mr Foster lodged the appeal because he believed the complex could be sited on the Westpac Stadium concourse at the same cost to that proposed for Cobham Park.

Ms Prendergast has said the concourse option would cost at least $66 million and was too expensive.

The new review will look at the costs of the concourse proposal, which, when presented to councillors, was still at the conceptual design stage. The respective costs of both options could then be compared.

Both parties had agreed to abide by the review's findings but Ms Prendergast believed Cobham Park would still come out on top. "I'm confident the information presented to councillors is correct. But there is enough uncertainty in the community that it needs to be looked at by independent experts to confirm the council's advice."

She said the panel would be led by Sir John Anderson and she was hopeful it could report its findings in a few weeks.

Mr Foster had verbally agreed to the review yesterday after a meeting on Friday and was expected to put it in writing last night.

He said he would make suggestions for the review's terms of reference and processes, which are conditional to his acceptance. "It must be an open and transparent process. The report back must be a public one so everybody can look at the information which is presented.

"This will give the public the opportunity to look at the information, which is important for such a big investment for the city."

The review is the second forced by Mr Foster. Last June he voiced similar concerns over the centre, which led to what he labelled "a very quick and dirty peer review that only included council information".

That review found the concourse option was too expensive and recommended Cobham Park as the preferred site.