A protestor at a recent Save Dunedin live music protest in the Octagon. PHOTO: PETER MCINTOSH
Councillors voted 13-2 to approve a draft investment plan for its Ōtepoti Live Music Action Plan, for consultation purposes as part of its 2025-34 nine-year-plan, at a Dunedin City Council meeting yesterday.
The action plan was adopted by the council in September 2023, designed to support sustainable creative practices and the development of Dunedin's live music community.
The investment plan proposed an increase in rates of about $137,000 each year for nine years, and an additional $4000 per annum for three of the nine years, to provide new funding for two of the action plan's 36 goals.
These involved the research and three-year pilot of pre-approved resource consent packages for green spaces in the city, as well as two staffing positions to co-ordinate and deliver the action plan, a creative partnerships project co-ordinator and a new creative adviser position.
Councillors heard a total of 26 of the plan's goals had been identified as business as usual, were under way or had been completed.
However, Cr Steve Walker said many of these actions, while important, were "low-hanging fruit".
Some of the trickier and more fundamental problems remained, and a dedicated staff member and admin support to co-ordinate and ultimately deliver the whole plan across the council was needed.
"Without us deciding to fund this position ... the parts of the [plan] that got the music community and us here into this unpleasant position in the first place will never be resolved and the goal of this plan to support and maintain a thriving live music ecosystem in Dunedin will never be fulfilled.
"All the work we've done up until this point will have been wasted."
It was a bit like building and designing a beautiful car "and then not financing the petrol to run the thing", he said.
Cr Lee Vandervis said he had been in the music business as a supplier of equipment in Dunedin for decades, and could not see "another bureaucrat dedicated as a music adviser" as having any real value for the music and musicians whom he had experiences with.
The same money could perhaps make a difference were it put towards subsidising practice rooms or access to other locations for bands to play in.
"But another staff member is not something that I think is really going to help."
Cr Bill Acklin said the new funding request was "not something that really needs to be a huge talk-fest".
Councillors had voted in the live music action plan, and he knew from experience that musicians could be very disorganised, he said.
"So the one thing that they need is a captain, and that's all this is asking for, is a captain to drive this ship ... to head in the direction of the outcomes that have been already outlined.
"It's not rocket science."
Deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and Cr Vandervis opposed the motion.
