$11m needed for opera house work

The heritage listed opera house is in need of strengthening work. Photo / File

A full public consultation on Hawke's Bay Opera House is set to go ahead next February.

The meeting will focus on a detailed plan for work on the house with council's recommendation being to strengthen the heritage listed building to between 70 and 75 per cent of building code, at a cost of about $11 million - money which is already in the budget.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the only other real option was to demolish the 100-year-old structure.

"We understand that the opera house is important to many people in the community, and we want to ask the public for their view on the options available," he said.

Debate sparked up at yesterday's meeting with councillors wanting to know the cost of the project beyond just the opera house.

Councillor Wayne Bradshaw brought to the table a $50 million price tag on the full project and Simon Nixon said ratepayers could not be consulted unless they know the cost of the separate parts of the project as well as its whole.

"Because my view is - support for fixing the opera house is very much greater than say for civic square, which I think is actually very tepid," Mr Nixon said.

HDC chief executive Ross McLeod reassured councillors that no more than the $20 million that was set out in the long term plan for the project would be spent.

Mr Yule said post meeting that while the public consultation would outline a wider longer term vision for a cultural and commercial hub, linking the opera house, municipal buildings and Civic Square, it was decided to focus on the opera house work in the first instance.

He said then the time could be taken to look at the uses of the other buildings in the precinct because at this stage there are so many options as to what the buildings could be and not enough detail as yet.

"If we were to wait to get all that sorted it would delay even further the opera house repair," he said after the meeting.

The mayor said that by the next council meeting on January 28 it was hoped consultation documents would be ratified so councillors could give the best advice possible on funding option for the opera house.

"In other words while we say it might cost $11 million there could be some private sector or other trust funding available," he said.

A preliminary design for the work on the opera house has been released and it is hoped a decision whether to move forward will be made by March.