Antony Gough Broadsides Arts Centre Bailout

Long Term Plan hearings kick off today with submissions from Terrace owner, Antony Gough, & The Arts Centre's Philip Aldridge. NZR examines Gough's claims against the Grant Thorton audited accounts.

Antony Gough has delivered a fiery broadside regarding the Arts Centre’s funding request, as the council begins its public hearings today for the Long Term Plan.

The Terrace and Owner, Antony Gough

Antony Gough (Source: metropol.co.nz)

“It is the massive management structure that needs to go and be replaced with a normal management structure.”

“The Arts Centre has a rent roll of around $2 million and management structure of around 24 full time equivalent people with a wage cost of more than the total rent roll.”

Antony Gough, Director of the Terrace Christchurch Limited, alongside councillor Jamie Gough.

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However, the Grant Thorton audited accounts show while the staff costs rose in 2022, they did not exceed monies sourced from rents and carparking.

The NZR

Buried amongst more than 200 pages of public submissions, Gough’s salvo resolves that the entire 24-person Arts Centre management team body should be replaced by a “professional body” at 4 to 5 percent of the current wage bill. Based on the 2022 audited accounts, that would see staff costs cut to between about $45,000 and $67,500 a year.