Sign In / Register
A plan to improve the courtyard outside Whangaparaoa Library, which began three years ago, has resurfaced as a final design that has more than doubled in cost.
Under Auckland Council’s Community Empowerment model, the idea was for the project to be community-led. Public input began in mid-2016.
The original concept design, produced in 2017, was costed at $85,000. This was later revised up, as the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board allocated $92,000 for the project from its 2017/18 budget.
This sum, in turn, was described at the local board’s March meeting as “unrealistic” by Council project manager Claire Walker. “With today’s health and safety and tendering costs, projects just don’t cost $100,000 any more, unfortunately,” she told members.
The local board agreed to allocate an additional $112,500 to the upgrade – the total projected cost is now $204,500, an increase of 150 percent. Of this, $52,700 has been spent on design, including $43,600 for “detailed design and specialist reports from WSP Opus”. Construction costs make up the remaining $151,800.
The final design includes shade sails, native plantings, improved and additional seating and art tiles created by members of the community.
A proposed small play area and fruit tree planting are not in the final plan – in part due to health and safety concerns. Local board members’ attempts to get the trees put back into the plan were turned down, with Claire describing fruit trees as too great a health and safety risk – the trees would have been near a paved area, and fallen fruit could be “a significant slip hazard” she said.
Now that it has local board sign off, the work will go out for tender and construction should begin in the 2019/20 financial year.
