Questions are being raised about the summer lease that Tauranga City Council is about to sign with the Bay Oval Trust concerning Blake Park's cricket oval in Mount Maunganui.

Mount resident Rob Paterson presented his concerns to city councillors on Tuesday via objections to the proposal to lease the Blake Park venue to the Trust.

Blake Park's Bay Oval, which has a lease deal with Tauranga City Council via the Bay Oval Trust. Photo: File.

The Bay Oval Trust owns and manages the facility's pavilion and structures at the international cricket venue, but not the grounds – including the wicket and the outfield, which have not been specifically considered in any previous agreement.

After the World Cup qualifying tournament at Blake Park in 2014/15, council sought legal advice on how best to enable agreements between the Trust and third parties for use of the grounds.

A requirement of World Cup organisers was to demonstrate the facilties and grounds were under the control of the Trust, which could then sublease some of the controls to NZ Cricket and relevant partners.

A short-term, 40-day lease was agreed by council at the time, which has since expired.

Now, a summer lease from September 1 to April 30 for three years has been proposed as the best solution to fulfil venue requirements by organisations such as NZ Cricket.

New Zealand's Black Caps are scheduled to face Sri Lanka at the Mount venue next month, starting with a one-day international on January 5 followed by a Twenty-20 clash two days later.

Rob says the lease should have been made directly with NZ Cricket, not the Bay Oval Trust, which he claims is not actually a cricketing outfit.

'The Trust has, in my opinion, no transparency, no accountability, no viewable annual accounts or income and no viewable statement of financial positions,” says Rob.

'You can't see the records. They are not filed with the registrar, so unless council makes some provision in its lease, no-one knows how this is operating.

'You can't readily ascertain who the current trustees are, as they are not required to be lodged with the registrar.”

The Bay Oval Trust was first registered in August 2014, and was formerly the Bay of Plenty Cricket Trust which was established in June 2009.

'Council has to ensure that everything lines up and that it is squeaky clean,” says Rob.

'There's nothing wrong with a usual type of lease for cricket per se – a normal lease – but I don't think this is normal. It's got a little bit of the original Bay Park lease about it.

'It just looks like a sweetheart deal lease and it's unlike any other sporting lease that I have seen in this area.

'Council should be very wary of what's going on there, and what's going on with the outfit it is leasing to.”

However, speaking after the meeting, Bay Oval Trust general manager Kelvin Jones says much of what Rob says is incorrect.

'We are a registered charity," confirms Kelvin. "As such, our annual accounts go online in the charities register and all trustees are updated on that register as well as on our website.

'We absolutely comply. We audit our accounts to comply with the charity commission's requirement.”

The Bay Oval Trust is 'absolutely” a cricket organisation, says Kelvin, with some obvious objectives which the charities commission accepted.

'We were formerly Bay of Plenty Cricket Trust - that bit is correct,” he says

The wicket and outfield are subject to a memorandum of understanding that the Trust has had with council for four or five years on how the cricket ground and wicket are used, says Kelvin.

'The lease has to be with a local entity,” he says. Only two games at the venue last season were run by New Zealand Cricket.

'The rest of them were either Northern Districts or, in the case of the World Cup, ICC, or district level cricket. There are a number of levels here.”

Mayor Stuart Crosby says a report will be prepared for councillors addressing the concerns. The bay oval lease is an agenda item for today's annual plan meeting.