The new Bulls Community Centre has come in a whopping $2 million over budget and is expected to open to the public in July. Photo / Bevan Conley
The new Bulls Community Centre has come in a whopping $2 million over budget and is expected to open to the public in July. Photo / Bevan Conley
Rangitikei District Council's mayor and chief executive have faced the music from frustrated Bulls residents after a $2 million budget blow out for the town's new community centre was revealed.
Mayor Andy Watson and chief executive Peter Beggs fronted a public meeting at the Bulls Town Hall on Thursday night.
The council announced at its last meeting on February 27, that an extra $2,044,913 had been approved to fund the new centre.
The council was told the construction cost was close to the initial budget but professional fees, building consent, furniture and fit-out costs had not been included, meaning the cost ballooned to a forecast $8,242,113.
Watson called for a public meeting to try and be transparent as possible.
"I've got to the stage where I've put out a true and honest picture around where we're sitting at in terms of costs and we apologise, I apologise, it was only really at the time that Peter came in that some of these costs were truly apparent to council," Watson told the meeting.
One of the most common questions on the top of everyone's list was why a feasibility study had not taken place before the project began.
"You've blamed Bulls wanting more things and blamed everyone along the way but one of the core things that does not appear to be done is a feasibility study on this whole exercise and unless one is done properly that pulled all the figures all together you might have ended up with a $10 million exercise, then the community could have decided whether we wanted it - but you didn't," one resident said.
Beggs agreed and said the council did not do it the right way and it accepted that.
"Part of the lessons learnt discussed with council is we need to do a much better job in assessing these projects their impact both financially and socially and what are we going to do in the future," he said.
Rangitikei District Council Mayor Andy Watson and Rangitikei District Council chief executive Peter Beggs hosted a public meeting to address the Bulls community's questions. Photo / Lucy Drake
Watson said the issue was the number of costs the council was not aware of and had not planned for and after the arrival of Beggs and his review, the revised budget indicated a number of on-site issues that arose within the development stage.
The purchase of a large water tank and pumping station for an alternative water system for firefighting, the purchase of a power transformer for sufficient power and the purchase of extra land for car parking and bus lanes were all added costs.
One resident argued the feasibility study should have included asking the people of Bulls if they wanted the project and this was not done correctly.
Watson argued he was part of a committee that went as widely as possible in terms of consultation that included waling tours, signage on shop windows and making himself available to discuss queries around the new build.
"The sad thing is the number of times we've tried to engage around the annual plan and meetings, the average attendance has been around five people, I've held the best part of around 15 of them around the district but we have tried and tried to engage with the community," he said.
Watson confirmed the building and the land would be council owned, the cost for the building would be covered by the whole district and it is likely rates would go up.
One Bulls resident expressed her concerns for low socio-economic people in the district and questioned the Mayor how he expected people that fell into this group to pay for the new build.
"How the hell are you going to get this money back that it doesn't affect my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren that are still paying for this in 20,30, 40 years time?" a resident said.
A number of Bulls residents filled the seats in the Bulls Town Hall to raise their frustrations with the Mayor and the chief executive over the new Bulls Community Centre. Photo / Lucy Drake
He said it was certainly an issue the council had to take through into the Long-Term Plan but, in most places, those issues were long-term loan funded.
Watson said he was disappointed an application for funding, which he expected to be about $1 million, was declined by the Government's Provincial Growth Fund.
"You could also say at what better time to build now when interest rates are around the 2 per cent mark," he said.
Watson also confirmed a number of future projects including the Taihape Town Centre, Marton Civic Centre and the Three Waters would not be delayed.
"We are governed by legislation around earthquake-prone buildings and we have seven years to bring them up to code to either demolish or rebuild."
