The report revealed that after Meerkat completed its design, the council ordered an independent audit by an acoustics consultant to ensure compliance was achieved.
Instead of the minimum 80 per cent outdoor coverage of at-risk areas sought by the council, Marshall Day Acoustics found that the Meerkat design achieved only 50 per cent. Meerkat was then asked to review the parameters and cost required to achieve the minimum. It came back with costs that were "outside that considered appropriate to enable the tender to proceed".
The other big stumbling block was the discovery that there would be "significant difficulties" obtaining consent for Meerkat's network of sirens.
In processing the resource consents from Meerkat, council planners found that the majority of alarm installations on poles would result in "adverse visual effects". This meant the consent had to be publicly notified.
Another planning issue was that the consenting process was a lot less straight forward when it came to installing sirens along roads and in council reserves.
The council agreed to begin a planning change to widen the zones where tsunami warning sirens were permitted as of right. It was also decided to halt any further design work until Civil Defence national standards for sirens had been received.
No date has been set for the workshop.
