Waimakariri’s capital works ‘well behind schedule’ amid labour shortage
From local democracy reporter Adam Burns:
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Building managers at the Waimakariri District Council are disappointed the delivery of major capital works continues to lag behind as they contend with an arduous construction environment.
Several projects within its $70 million capital works programme remain significantly off the pace as resourcing constraints and supply chain factors continue to stretch the council thin.
There is concern the programme could be as low as 66 per cent done by the end of June, after a quarterly update was presented to the council’s audit and risk committee on Tuesday.
"Resourcing is certainly hitting and affecting our ability to deliver the programme," council senior engineering adviser Don Young said.
Utilities and roading manager Gerard Cleary said the council needed to be careful of overcommitting when developing the annual plan, as resourcing issues 'would not be going away overnight".
"We’ve lost quite a few senior engineers and in the consulting industry they're equally as stretched," he said.
"We are disappointed with how this year's capital works delivery is going."
Cleary said council had taken on graduate-level staff to help with the workload.
"It's really hard to get senior engineers and that's probably where we've suffered the most," he said.
"It's a crazy market out there."
Adding further headaches was pricing issues as a result of a tight construction market, contractor availability and "extreme pressure" on the supply chain.
"Most of the recent tenders have had one or two respondents only, and almost all of them are significantly over budget," the capital works quarterly report said.
Councillor Sandra Stewart was unsympathetic at the meeting to the issues and appealed for assurances upcoming work would be completed on time.
"I don’t mean to put the boot in ... but the refrain is very familiar," she said.
"What process is being put in place that will virtually guarantee that you deliver far better than this, given the environment out there."
Deputy mayor Neville Atkinson jumped to the defence of staff and said many of the factors were out of their control.
"How you're even going to price something, or get a timeline out of a contractor. It is just about impossible," he said.
"There’s some realities around this which we have to accept, that in the next year or two there will be movement and we may not get some things done, because of what is out there in this environment.
"No resourcing, higher prices and no guarantee of timelines ... these guys are managing all of it the best they can."
Council loan agreed to help Oxford fitness centre grow
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
The Waimakariri District Council has agreed to loan $200,000 so the Oxford Health and Fitness Centre Trust can start a 153m2 expansion of its facility at Pearson Park.
The existing 322 square metre building is owned by the trust, which leases the community fitness centre to the North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust to run.
The expansion will support the fitness centre’s growing membership, which now exceeds 400, trust chairperson Tim Fulton said.
The trust has already raised $55,000 and has a contractor lined up for the build, which is expected to cost $283,000.
It had applied to the Rata Foundation for funding but was unsuccessful.
‘‘The facility is well-used and needs more space, so we feel the risk is relatively low,’’ the council’s community and recreation general manager Chris Brown said.
‘‘The worst case scenario is, if the trust is wound up, the building will pass over to the council and we will have a good community asset.’’
The council will borrow the money on the trust’s behalf, with the trust paying it off over 10 years at an interest rate of 4.65% to cover the council’s costs, Brown said.
Responding to a question at last week’s council meeting, chief executive Jeff Millward said the council was well within its self-imposed borrowing limit of 250% of its rates revenue.
‘‘We could borrow another $150 million and still be within our limit.’’
The council’s debt is about $200m, around 150% of its rates revenue, with a large chunk of it being due to borrowing $100m to repair and replace assets following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes.
The North Canterbury Sport and Recreation Trust manages five fitness centres in Rangiora (two), Kaiapoi and Amberley, as well as the Oxford facility.
The proceeds are used to fund community programmes such as sports coaching in schools and initiatives to help people improve their health.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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42.9% Yes, I've seen some illegal dumping
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56.4% No, our neighbourhood is pretty good
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0.7% Other - I'll share below
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