The two companies competing on the drawn out process for a tsunami-safe Papamoa community remain divided on Tauranga City Council's original costing requirements.

At Monday's meeting, organised by the Papamoa Progressive Association, siren installers Meerkat Alert Systems Ltd and Tactical Tooling Ltd each had half an hour to discuss the merits of their systems to the public.

Since 2005 Papamoa residents have been promised tsunami sirens – and since then three systems have been proposed and scrapped by council.

Meerkat Alert Systems managing director Wilfried Roding says council's original costings were too low, with their costs submitted on the revised design coming to about $1.5million. It is believed council received a grant for $805,000 for the installation of the system.

'These costs included some additional system options and modifications which were not included in the original tender. This cost was well over the council's budget,” says Wilfried.

'We also argued that the figure of $200,000 and six sirens, put forward by Tactical Tooling, is not realistic. Their system would also cost about $1.5m.”

Meerkat was the council's preferred tenderer before the plug was pulled on the sirens for the third time. Tactical Tooling is the supplier of the air raid sirens, used in a live demonstration last October.

The company's current projects include catering for Auckland City Council, Christchurch City Council and Timaru District Council.

Wilfried says the company has a long association with Tauranga, after testing their first prototypes in Mount Maunganui, and remains hopeful council will rethink their decision.

'We have planned various siren layouts for them [council] and that unfortunately culminated in council pulling the plug. I don't believe they have pulled the plug entirely but will hold workshop with the possibility to maybe resurrect the project.”

Former Papamoa Progressive Association chair Steve Morris says the big issue is resource consent, because in the Tauranga District Plan tsunami sirens is not a permitted activity as with other parts of New Zealand.

Both were critical of council requirements, stating they are 'a bit of an overkill”, but are happy to continue working with council.

Council restrictions on minimum and maximum sound levels were allocated to 75dB and 100dB within 25m of the pole. This was subsequently amended to 75dB for 80 per cent of each siren's coverage area, with the balance at 70dB for resource consent.

Wilfried adds a council resource planning department meeting revealed many of the proposed sites in the submission will require substantial public notification, costing between $50,000 and $100,000, and had a good chance of being rejected.

Tactical Tooling director Geoff Williamson presented different pricing options to the Papamoa Progressive Association at this week's meeting.

Geoff says Tactical Tooling can provide 8-10 sirens on 10 metres poles for a cost of $100,000. However, this is just for the cost of the sirens not including installation.

"As the original RFP for TCC tender stated that no standby power was required, so the Tactical tooling proposal was for 8 to 10 sirens on 10 metre poles, installed by Council contractors and electric mains powered.

"But meanwhile TCC have alluded to standby power, requiring costs to be added for auto-start diesel generators.

"Even with full support from backup generators, mains power and protection, Tactical Tooling can better the Council's requirements for less than the Council grant of $805,000.

Tactical Tooling has also made a formal submission to the current Resource Management Act review committee to change the discretionary powers of councils to impose maximum sound levels for sirens, to exclude emergency equipment and related activity, including sirens.