SPARC information on NZCCOE a mixed bag - 27/05/2011

Wanganui District Council has today received information requested from Sports and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) relating to the assessment criteria and scoring for Council’s bid to host the New Zealand Cycling Centre of Excellence (NZCCOE).

“They have released to us the scores relating to the unsuccessful bids but have not released any information about the three shortlisted bids from Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Auckland and Palmerton North,” says Mayor Annette Main.

“We are disappointed that Wanganui was not ranked higher in SPARC’s weighted scoring system. We were clearly marked down in the areas of support services in terms of access to sports research personnel and our access to existing high performance facilities – both areas in which the Waikato/Bay of Plenty bid would score highly.

“It appears now that SPARC wanted these services and facilities to already be in place. We knew that personnel would come here if our bid was successful and the NZCCOE built. Other experts would have been able to support us from Palmerston North.

“We were weighted poorly in parking, which is a surprise to us as our bid allowed for an additional 360 parking spaces within a 600 metre radius of the velodrome. Parking has never been an issue around the Cooks Gardens area for sporting events.

“We received little credit for ‘added value’ although we highlighted our size in relation to other key sporting centres worldwide, our safe roads, the support from our cycling community and the major national and international cycling events we have successfully hosted. Wanganui has hosted more national cycling events than any other city in New Zealand. We were also given no recognition of the substantial organisation and volunteer base for hosting the Masters Games.

“Looking at the score sheets and individual areas assessed it is clear that our score accurately reflects the feedback we received at our de-brief meeting on May 12.

“We scored highly in the area of facilities development, which confirms the comments made at the debrief about the excellent design of our proposed facility and our plans for the development of the Cooks Gardens complex.

“Wanganui deserved the opportunity to be assessed to host the NZCCOE – how could we not put in a bid for something which would have made a positive economic difference to our district. The bid galvanized the community and they got behind this.

“We still have a world class velodrome, a proud cycling history and the future ahead of us. Our experience and energy gained from this project will no doubt be directed into other initiatives to benefit our district.”