Public to have say on quake work

Hastings District Council faces a $20 million bill to strengthen the Hawke's Bay Opera House and other spending in the CBD. Photo / File

Hastings district councillors are being asked to approve the appointment of an independent project manager and an external working party to steer public consultation over strengthening the Hawke's Bay Opera House and other CBD spending totalling $20 million.

The council is facing a bill estimated at between $14.2 million and $17.8 million to bring the historic opera house complex up to an acceptable earthquake standard.

It intends running a public consultation process to consider different seismic strengthening options along with plans for an upgrade to Civic Square and the development of a CBD hotel in the city.

All three projects were initially expected to cost a total of $20 million, but a larger than expected estimate for the opera house work means that decisions now need to be made on which projects proceed.

In a paper to be considered by councillors at a meeting tomorrow, council staff have outlined a consultation process that would culminate in the authority making a final decision on the projects on November 26.

The paper recommends the council appoint an external project manager, supported by an external working party, internal project team and consultants and advisers "as necessitated".

The scale of the project called for an external manager and its significance also meant it was appropriate to establish an external working party to "provide specialist and independent expertise, advice and peer-review expertise to this project," the staff report says.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the council wanted to ensure it had a level of "independent thought" and appropriate information on the options before public consultation began.

"We think it's a best-practice approach given the amount of money we're talking about. Rather than going out to the public with some uncertainty, let's nail down some cost options and then go out to the public."

Mr Yule said he did not know what the cost of the independent appointments would be but did not expect it to be expensive.

"A lot of people help us on the basis that they want to help us and it's not a long-term piece of work," he said.

"It's really just trying to use the best brains we can find in the short-term to make sure we're doing things in the best way we can."