Whanganui dog pound faced 'controlled shutdown' without money

Whanganui District Council now has $1 million in the budget to build a new dog pound. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui's dog pound was facing a "controlled shutdown" had councillors not approved an extra $550,000 for a new facility, according to Whanganui District Council chief executive Kym Fell.

Earlier this year council approved Airport Rd as the location for the planned facility and put a further $550,000 in its draft 10-year-plan to top up $450,000 already set aside.

Councillors signed off putting the extra money in the budget when debating public submissions to the plan on Tuesday.

It came after a plea from Fell who said the pound, which was required to meet the Dog Control, Animal Welfare, Resource Management, Health and Safety at Work and the Local Government acts, was currently non-compliant.

"In many respects you can only do a certain amount with bailing twine because it'll only last for so long and I think that's the level of where our pound is at this stage," he said.

"Council fundamentally has one job to do... and that is to deliver the core services to our community and a core service in my view is animal control and the provision of a compliant fit for purpose dog pound."

In response to a question about what would happen if council did not approve the money he said there was no plan B.

"At some point a regulatory authority is going to turn their attention to our non-compliance," he said.

"So essentially, to answer your questions, should the funding not be approved today then I'd probably have no choice but to facilitate some form of controlled shutdown over a period of time until we can find another solution."

Some councillors held concerns about the Airport Rd location but mayor Hamish McDouall said Tuesday decision was only about creating space in the budget.

"I don't think we should over complicate what we're doing today," he said.

"Without this we have no way of building a pound anywhere in the district."

Council's property general manager Leighton Toy said final design and final would not be known until it had been opened up to tender.

Afterwards the entire project including the location would come back to council for approval.

"Otherwise we're just playing guessing games," he said.

"We can't go out to tender unless we've got sufficient money in the budget to be able to build the thing."

Anderson - who holds concerns about the proximity of shooting ranges - said council's preferred location was his concern and he "may have considered" voting for the money had it not been.

"We all know how dogs can be gun-shy and fireworks-shy. We know it's a problems," he said.

"It's a mistake. It's a huge mistake... Those dogs will freak out and I doubt double glazing would even stop it. I will be voting against it."

Councillor Helen Craig said the matter had been before the councillors a number of times and "we've argued and argued and argued it" and that there would be issues wherever it was built.

"It costs what it costs."

Toy said council will be working with a vet to help noise-proof the facility.

"We'll be doing all we can to make sure the health and wellbeing of the dogs is looked after," he said.

Councillors voted 8-4 in favour of the $550,000 for the pound budget with David Bennett, Graeme Young, Charlie Anderson and Murray Cleveland against it and Alan Taylor abstaining.