No ‘budget blowout’ but pressure on Ashburton’s civic centre build

The Team Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

There is immense pressure on the budget for Ashburton’s new library and civic centre, but it remains within its $56.75 million limit, the town’s mayor says.

The claim of a budget blowout in a submission on the annual plan drew the attention of district councillors at the hearings last week, prompting mayor Neil Brown to refute the claim.

As a member of the project control group, Brown said there had been no mention of a budget blowout.

“We mentioned we have lost some time and there is certainly pressure on the budget, but there has been no budget blow out.”

The project’s completion has been pushed back from the end of this year into 2023.

What those delays will cost is still to be determined.

Council chief executive Hamish Riach said Covid restrictions and now supply chain issues are “impacting pressure on costs and the forecast completion date, which is now expected to be in the first half of 2023”.

“The project is still within budget, which includes the sum previously set for contingencies, though it is fair to say there are real financial pressures, and costs are being very closely monitored.

The project had an amended budget of $51.6m in the council’s 2018-28 long-term plan, but that was then increased to $56.75m to allow for contingency, due to the uncertainty around the impacts of Covid.

The budget includes $20m from the Government’s ‘shovel ready’ project funding.

Brown said that funding was not paid in a lump sum but was paid in instalments as milestones were reached in the construction.

The construction timeline is the project's overbearing issue due to industry’s widespread supply chain issues, with materials like timber and plasterboard in hot demand.

Riach said that was a major pressure on the project’s timeframe but “where possible, we are trying to minimise those issues by ordering well ahead of time”.

Several submissions called for cutbacks on the Library and Civic Centre, but Brown said consultation on the project was completed three years ago and construction was already halfway through.