Outrage at $90k cost of city signs

Julie Hardaker. Photo / APN

Hamilton city councillors are outraged over a proposal to spend $90,000 on four signs to finish off the $16 million central-city revitalisation project.

The city council's finance and monitoring committee yesterday debated paying $50,000 for an expert to design a sign strategy plus $40,000 to make directional signs.

But some councillors said the cost was absurd, and councillor Ewan Wilson and Deputy Mayor Gordon Chesterman offered to design them for the city for free.

Mr Wilson said spending $90,000 on a signs strategy and signs was outrageous. "I think we are sending all the wrong signs. If this organisation needs to engage consultants to work out a sign strategy then let's put up a sign saying we are closed."

Mr Chesterman said there was an internationally accepted way of devising signs for toilets and parking which people could easily understand and he didn't think it should cost $90,000.

But Mayor Julie Hardaker said the council had already spent $16 million on upgrading the CBD as part of the City Heart revitalisation project and now was not the time to quibble over the cost of signs which could be unique to Hamilton.

She said she would be very disappointed if the council decided to just stick in a wooden post with the word "toilet" written on it.

Councillor Daphne Bell said anyone who arrived at the Hamilton Transport Centre on Anglesea St at the moment would not know how to get to Garden Place or the Waikato River, and said councillors didn't have the knowledge nor it was their role to create signs.

The council was split over whether to even discuss the signs strategy at a workshop next week, but chairman Dave Macpherson used his casting vote to pass the motion.

Mr Macpherson said it did not necessarily mean the council would spend the money, and councillor John Gower suggested the scope could be extended to incorporate a wider area and include more than four signs.

In 2010, the council spent more than $1000 a sign for the city's dog parks to tell owners where they could walk their dogs off leads, which at the time was criticised by councillors.

The committee also agreed to look at design and costing options for a second kiosk in Garden Place, budgeted at $70,000, with the view to building it.