Manfeild Part Trust Takes a king hit.

Heather Verry. 

This from the Manawatu Standards Jessica Sutton:

“Manawatu A&P fears the Royal show event in 2013 will leave "someone broke". Manawatu and West Coast A&P Association president, Maurice Pedley, said it was "completely unhappy with the budget". "The budget was way out of our league," he said. "Someone's going to go broke was our opinion and that's the simple answer to why we declined to be part of the consortium. We couldn't put the Manawatu A&P show at that sort of financial risk if the event didn't work."

The budget for the event was not publicly available as it was commercially sensitive.

Mr Pedley said leaving the consortium was not due to any other disagreement.

"It's always been our intention to hold a Royal Show, but we just can't afford to risk everything for this one.

Manfeild Park Trust chief executive Heather Verry [pictured] said the association's withdrawal was disappointing.

"Feilding IA&P had similar issues [to Manawatu] and they were resolved," she said.

"We did this to support the A&P shows and get them in partnership. They disappointingly turned it down. They didn't give a reason."

The trust has worked closely with both A&P associations since its inception in 2004. Under the initial agreement both associations were given the right to use the Feilding facility for free one weekend a year to hold their shows.

However, Manfeild Park Trust chairman Ben Vanderkolk said it was time the Manawatu A&P Association "strategically" mapped out where it was going. "Historical claims and rights are probably not relevant within the current environment," he said.

Mr Pedley said Mr Vanderkolk's comment about losing its rights to the facility was "scary". "I'm amazed they've raised this issue again," he said. "He's [Vanderkolk] alluded to this before. We retain the rights to use the facility. It's all in legal documents. They're [shows] our only asset."

In October 2004 three landowners – Manawatu District Council, Feilding IA&P and the Manawatu Car Club – deeded their land and formed the Manfeild Park Trust. During this time, the Palmerston North City Council said it would help to fund the park as long as the Manawatu IA&P Association could hold its show for free each year at the park”. [Standard report ends]

Well, well, the seven candidates for the upcoming by-election have a real live issue to debate, now that the ship has hit the rocks…will the pokie machine trusts be able to pump another couple of million dollars into the Manfeild CHARITABLE Park Trust to keep it alive, or will the rate payers of Feilding be forced to bail out the trust yet again and when will the trust start to pay back even some of the interest and capital it owes both the MDC and PNCC…or is that a pipe dream. And will Big Ben Vanderkolk ignore his promise made about one weekend show per year for the MA&P association that he used to drag money out of the people of Palmerston North. It would seem that some just enjoy getting ignorant country folk like those in Manawatu and Horowhenua district councils to pay their wage bills and prop up unsustainable financial dreams and schemes by Charitable trusts that have simply lost their way.