Grafton United - Submission to the Waitemata Local Board 2025
Grafton United Cricket Club
The Pavilion, Victoria Park, 203 - 271 Victoria Street West, Auckland 1011
7 May 2025
Update to the Waitemata Local Board 2025
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight event impacts on Grafton United Cricket Club (GUCC) and other community users of Victoria Park to the Waitematā Local Board, as well as update the Local Board on opportunities to improve the security, safety and experience in our parks.
Thank you
GUCC acknowledges that this Board has been very supportive over the years:
- Lease and building ownership agreements
- Re-roofing of the Victoria Park clubrooms
- Funding for the outdoor nets at Victoria Park and Cox’s Bay Reserve
- Action on tree management
- Irrigation of Victoria Park
- Consultation on traffic management
- General support and wise counsel when requested.
Background
GUCC is Tāmaki Makaurau’s central city cricket club. Victoria Park is the most well recognised sport and recreation destination in the Waitematā Local Board area. It has been the home of GUCC for over 70 years, and offers a unique opportunity for central city residents and visitors to experience organised sport.
GUCC is also part of the Victoria Park Sports and Cultural Trust (VPS&CT). The VPS&CT owns and administers the clubrooms that are a focal point for the users of Victoria Park. The membership includes GUCC, Auckland Districts Pipe Band Association and the Auckland Football Referees Association.
The club and trust play an important part in providing sporting opportunities for the growing central city community and inner-city residential suburbs, particularly on the western fringe. Sport contributes to the community’s wellbeing and connectedness.
Grafton United in 2025
We are one of the biggest senior clubs in New Zealand with 13 teams. This past season our Premier team played in the top grade of Auckland club cricket and hosted the Richard Jones Limited Over Final, further showcasing Victoria Park. Almost half of our senior membership are proudly made up of people with South Asian heritage.
Māori also have an active role in our club – the Māori Avengers T20 side proudly express their culture and cricketing skills, while four of our Premier players have represented Tāmaki Makaurau Tāne and Wāhine teams.
The GUCC junior club has 440 junior members and has helped a further 4,500 school children enjoy cricket in 2024/25. Along with our regular Cox’s Bay Reserve cricket, the season highlight was our Super Sixes festival in February – this tournament saw over 100 tamariki played games on Victoria Park.
Our biggest area of growth and opportunity is women and girls in cricket – in the past five seasons, we have tripled the number of women and girls teams, growing to 76 members in 2024/25. Our Premier Women’s Development team combined with Parnell Cricket Club to win their T20 and One-day finals.
Commercial events – Plane Sailing/Fisher concert
Plane Sailing/Fisher, a commercial music event, has occurred on Victoria Park in January 2022, 2023 and 2025. On all three occasions, this event has damaged the ground, disrupting cricket and community access and enjoyment.
We have objected to this event on each occasion. To minimise impacts, we have taken an active part in consultation on mitigations. Despite what has been implied by some Council officers in some reporting, our collaboration on mitigations does not mean that this event is satisfactory or sustainable.
While there was improved ground protection from the organiser and Auckland Council in 2025, damage and subsequent remuneration took the half the sports fields offline for a further four weeks.
In our feedback to Auckland Council, we opposed the Plane Sailing/Fisher events based on the following:
- Victoria Park’s primary purpose is sport and recreation, not intensive commercial events.
- Ground damaged and remediation resulting in further community sport displacement.
- The proposed event impact being within our normal scheduled cricket season, disrupting both Grafton United Cricket Club and the wider Auckland cricket community.
- The event duration exceeded the five days (including pack in/out) permitted in the Victoria Park Event Operational Guide:
(Zone 1a and 1b – Sports fields, from the Waitematā Local Board rules specified in the Land Owner Approval Rules and
Assessment Criteria and Conditions for Events in Victoria Park) -
10. A maximum of three events per year (financial year being 1 July to 30 June), up to 5 days per event. Each event is limited to
only one weekend of sports displacement (per sports code, per season).
We do not feel that due consideration has been given to the Victoria Park Event Guidelines endorsed by the Waitematā Local Board.
We are supportive of events in the Waitematā local area, however, believe there are non-sport parks that are better suited to this type of commercial event. We do not object to the occasional small-scale events on the western side of the motorway overpass, away from sports fields. We also work constructively with Auckland Council and Ironman NZ to ensure the Auckland Marathon is held successfully annually at Victoria Park.
We understand that Plane Sailing/Fisher event has received resource consent, however we do not want this to set a precedence. We strongly believe the Event Guidelines should be followed.
GUCC and VPS&CT strongly believe that Victoria Park should continue to be used for organised sports and recreation for the local population. This will require continued investment to keep the park in the best possible condition, as well as the continued support of the Waitematā Local Board.
Action: Our requests for the Local Board:
- Understand our objections to the use of Victoria Park for intensive commercial events
- Explore and invest in upgrades to improve Victoria Park sport field performance and resiliency
- Advocate for community park users by following the Victoria Park Event Guidelines
- Ensure the protections for Victoria Park that acknowledge it’s special position in Tāmaki Makaurau and role in community sport and recreation are prioritised and enhanced in the upcoming Waitematā Local Park Management Plan.
Safety and security concerns from homelessness at Victoria Park
We appreciate the Local Board’s focus on support for ending homelessness in Auckland. We recognise that homelessness is a challenging issue that involves people with multiple and complex needs.
Homelessness at Victoria Park has been an ongoing issue. We want Victoria Park and our club to be safe, welcoming and clean. Sadly, this is not always the case.
The practical reality is that there are health and safety issues for our staff, members and community park users. This includes staff being unable to safely enter/exit the pavilion, having to clean up human waste, and observing frequent rough sleeping and alcohol/drug abuse particularly on the grandstand steps. In January, our pavilion windows were smashed on two separate occasions. One of these events resulted in our bar stock and cash register being stolen.
As custodians of Victoria Park, VPS&CT and GUCC have worked proactively with various agencies on this matter, including Police and Chlöe Swarbrick. We have also put in place additional security measures.
Action: We request the Local Board continue to advocate and contribute towards ending homelessness, extending focus in the CBD/Queen St to include Victoria Park.
Changing room facilities upgrade at Victoria Park
As occupiers of a community group owned building on council owned land, we are grateful for the Local Board’s FY22/23 investment in a new Victoria Park pavilion roof.
This is part of the Community Capex Work Programme (ID 30697). We would like to work with the Local Board on the next phase of this renewal work - prioritising the changing room facilities upgrade to modernise them and make them gender-friendly.
The Council commissioned designs in 2023 which would have enhanced the community experience and safety, however this stalled, and the build works have not commenced.
Recent works programme documents suggest that there will be a design review to reduce the physical works cost in FY25/26, but renewal would not commence until FY26/27.
Action: Our request is to accelerate the design review and prioritise the changing room renewal in FY25/26 so that our community, including women and girls’ teams, can utilise fit-for-purpose and safe facilities sooner.
We can work across the user groups, including VPS&CT, Rugby League and Touch Rugby, to accelerate the design review.
Artificial cricket wicket renewal at Victoria Park and Cox’s Bay Reserve
Cricket field renewal is also included in the Community Capex Work Programme (ID 32150).
We would welcome the proposed renewal of artificial cricket wickets at Victoria Park and Cox’s Bay Reserve. Many of these wickets are worn right through to the concrete. Some are also low lying, resulting in water pooling.
We can guide Council officers and engage the Auckland Cricket Association on the renewal priority order to make the biggest difference for our community.
Action: Our request is progress cricket wicket renewals in FY25/26.
Cox’s Bay Reserve and the future of Western Springs Stadium
Cox’s Bay Reserve is a key ground for GUCC, acting as our second home and a focal point for junior cricket.
With the continued growth of junior membership, GUCC has increasingly utilised the Cox’s Bay grounds and facilities.
This is particularly the case on Thursday and Friday evenings when junior cricket is played to help alleviate congestion on Saturday. This provides a local cricket experience to busy parents and carers, frees up Saturday mornings, and reduces the traffic and parking demand in and around Victoria Park.
We are keenly observing the developments related to the future use of Western Springs Stadium being led by Tātaki Auckland Unlimited. The outer fields currently include cricket wickets used for junior cricket.
Noting Ponsonby Rugby Club utilise Cox’s Bay in the winter, future Western Springs Stadium decisions could have a knock-on effect to GUCC and other Cox’s Bay users.
We support maintaining community sport access to grounds within the Waitematā Local Board area. We will seek to improve the access and quality of cricket facilities for our community. We would welcome the Local Board’s guidance and advocacy with this aim.
Action: We request the Local Board’s guidance and advocacy to maintain and improve community sports access to grounds in our area, including cricket facilities at Cox’s Bay Reserve.
Summary
Grafton United Cricket Club would like to continue our excellent working relationship with the Waitematā Local Board. We are a club that is at the heart of the Waitematā community and believe that working together we can get the best outcome for our members and community.
In summary, we request that the Waitematā Local Board:
- Understand our objections to the use of Victoria Park for intensive commercial events
- Explore and invest in upgrades to improve Victoria Park sport field performance and resiliency
- Advocate for community park users by following the Victoria Park Event Guidelines
- Ensure protections for Victoria Park are enhanced in the upcoming Waitematā Local Park Management Plan
- Advocate and contribute towards ending homelessness, extending focus to include Victoria Park
- Accelerate the design review and prioritise the changing room renewal in FY25/26
- Progress cricket wicket renewals in FY25/26
- Guide and advocate to improve community sports access, including cricket facilities at Cox’s Bay Reserve.
Ngā mihi
Mark Bird
Chair, Grafton United Cricket Club
