Council to decide on Kulim Park funding

in May, sand was trucked in and spread out along the waterline to create a more user-friendly area at Kulim Park. Photo: John Borren.

Elected Members will decide on Thursday, June 27 whether to approve an additional $1m in the 2019/2020 Annual Plan for the Kulim Park redevelopment.

On Tuesday, Council staff told the Project, Services and Operations Committee (PSOC) that the project needed additional funds to reintroduce elements to the design that reflect both the concept scope shared with the community during consultation, and the recommendations outlined in a New Zealand's Parks Agencies Managers Group peer review.

The funding would also be used for a final round of community engagement.

A design concept for the redevelopment of Kulim Park was developed in 2017/2018, following consultation with the community. The tender price received for a full realisation of the design was $695,000 more than the original budget.

Bureta residents addressed the Council's Community and Culture Committee in February 2019, saying the redevelopment plan was flawed, not fit for purpose and over budget.

A reduced scope was agreed on with the tenderer that removed or changed the specification of some elements to allow the project to be delivered within the original budget.

Following a project review by Max Pederson Consulting (MPC), the redevelopment was put on hold earlier this year. The PSOC meeting on May 22 2019 resolved that an additional budget of $695,000 would be made available for the Kulim Park redevelopment project, on top of the current remaining budget of $1,086,812, which includes a $266,000 transportation budget. Whilst this supplemented budget would cover the original tender price received for the full scope of works, an additional $305,000 is required to cover non-tender costs such as contingency, a further round of consultation and additional professional services, bringing the total additional budget required to $1m.

The additional funding would come from historic development contributions. Development contributions are fees used to fund the infrastructure required as the result of the growth of Tauranga City.

You may also like....

4 comments

Money for Nothing

Posted on 22-06-2019 11:36 | By Maryfaith

I thought this project had been shelved after intense protests made by the community to the concept. Obviously not! Once council gets an idea in its head there is no stopping it! Why is another round of consultation necessary - NO means no. Kulim park is beautiful and natural. Council will turn it into another concrete jungle and its informality will be a memory. Another gross waste of money which will have a huge over run.


Another Budget fail

Posted on 22-06-2019 12:57 | By Cynical Me

Oh, we forgot to put this in our scope and estimates. Appalling management. Say no.


Overruns

Posted on 22-06-2019 20:05 | By Told you

How come a job as small as the revamping of this park can incur so much more money, who is getting a backhander?


Here we go again

Posted on 23-06-2019 09:06 | By earlybird

"reintroduce elements to the design". Ok, so the project was scaled back to be within budget and now they want to reintroduce the missing elements. Well that's just another way of saying budget blowout isn't it.


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.