Britomart's cost goes up $75.5m

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City councillors have decided to spend an extra $75.5 million on the Britomart transport centre provided it stacks up financially.

The council voted 15-4 last night to increase the budget for Britomart from $174 million to $249.5 million.

But it stopped short of funding the full $88 million cost overrun on a new design by lopping $13 million off a subway linking rail, bus and ferry services.

The budget is subject to a cost-benefit analysis, which councillors are not due to receive until the end of the month.

The analysis is being prepared under Audit New Zealand guidelines, but no decision has been made on whether it will be audited to ensure the highest level of financial integrity to one of the biggest and costliest local government projects in New Zealand history.

The Controller and Auditor-General, David Macdonald, said in a report on the original Britomart scheme that an area of "significant concern" was the lack of a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis.

When about $20 million written off from the previous scheme is included, the total cost of Britomart will be $270 million.

Councillor Doug Astley last night said the council was irresponsible committing $249 million to Britomart before it knew the true costs and benefits.

Strongest backing for financing the new Britomart came from Mayor Christine Fletcher and councillors opposed to the original $164 million scheme brought about in 1992 when Les Mills was mayor.

Mrs Fletcher, who at the last election said the council could have got an "excellent and modest" Britomart for $18 million, last night described the $249 million son of Britomart as a "fantastic project."

On Tuesday, Mrs Fletcher said that despite the council setting a $174 million budget for Britomart, the prize-winning entry by Californian architect Mario Madayag working with local firm Jasmax Architects, "had gone over and above" the budget on a whole range of things such as a $39 million concourse and aesthetic issues.

Deputy mayor Dr Bruce Hucker, who called the Mills scheme a "costly white elephant", supported spending a further $104 million on the new, smaller design for Britomart.

He said the two schemes were very different. The Mills scheme was based on high rise commercial property whereas the new put greater emphasis on transport and low rise urban design, he said.

The council plans to finance Britomart by borrowing $133 million and seeking $91.5 million from Infrastructure Auckland and $25 million from Transfund. If it can meet a very tight deadline for securing finance, work on building Britomart could start in August.