Former Kāpiti Coast District Councillor Gwynn Compton, who led the charge last triennium against the Kāpiti Gateway, has slammed Council’s refusal to halt the controversial and discredited Kāpiti Gateway project today as a slap in the face of Kāpiti residents.

“While our residents are having to cut their spending in the face of a worsening cost of living crisis, Council refuses to put an end to a non-core project whose budget has blown out, is running well behind schedule, has a business case that doesn’t add up, and has been overwhelmingly rejected by the community on multiple occasions. It’s a slap in the face for our community who deserve better from our elected representatives,” says Mr Compton.

“The simple facts are the Gateway’s estimated costs have already blown through the original budgeted construction and COVID-19 contingency fund of $1m by at least an additional $2m, if not more. This is at a time when construction sector inflation, while high, is nowhere remotely near that. Likewise, the facility was meant to originally be open on 30 September 2021 but more than a year later it doesn’t even have resource consent with the earliest opening date not until the end of 2023 if not sometime in 2024. Similarly, the business case has never demonstrated any net benefit to tourism numbers or visitor spending because no modelling of its impact was ever undertaken.

“This is very clearly a high risk project that’s been poorly scoped and planned, let alone the litany of other process issues around it. All of this has seen the project become a byword for Council mismanagement and waste. Council needs to listen to its community, scrap the Gateway, and reallocate the funding to projects that are actually wanted by our community such as the new Waikanae Library and Paraparaumu Community Centre rebuild.”

Note: Cr Liz Koh’s notice of motion to Kāpiti Coast District Council to halt the Kāpiti Gateway project has been left to lay on the table following a procedural motion at the 24 November Council meeting

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