Brian Rudman: Aotea Square screen a $3m folly that should be scrapped

The $3m, 84sq m screen destined for Aotea Square in unlikely to be in place for Rugby World Cup festivities. Photo / Dean Purcell

As Mayor Len and his councillors fan out through the suburbs looking for $65 million worth of projects to chop from next year's budget, they seem to have missed a multimillion-dollar folly planned for just outside the Town Hall. The giant, 84sq m Aotea Square screen.

Now that it's unlikely to be in place in time for Rugby World Cup-related festivities, the last remaining reason to splurge $3.07 million of ratepayers' cash on this toy has disappeared.

As staff admit in a recent report to councillors, the sky won't fall in if the purchase doesn't take place.

"It is important to note the installation of the big screen is not considered to be a critical element in the successful delivery of the tournament. If a permanent big screen cannot be installed in time, a temporary one will likely be hired in."

And if that proves impossible, then why not a projector and an inflatable screen? The internet seems full of entrepreneurs offering such facilities for hire.

The Aotea Square screen was one of those "bright ideas" that got hijacked along the way by the bureaucrats and turned into something very bland and ordinary. When the chief executive of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Michael Redman, reported on the stalled project to the accountability and performance committee a couple of weeks back, the problems came as something of a relief.

Lawyers have been engaged, negotiations with property owners and tenants over the planned site, the Metro building, were "ongoing" and installation before the World Cup "remains a significant risk". Trying to put on a brave front, the report declared that, if the Metro site proved too hard, "Fortunately, there is another installation option within Aotea Square which is currently being scoped ..." But this Plan B has turned to custard as well.

Last week it emerged that the alternative site atop the Aotea Centre had been vetoed by the council's urban design team because of its impact on sitelines and aesthetics. Which just leaves the side - or roof - of the heritage-listed Town Hall, and even if the Minister for the Rugby World Cup, Murray McCully, was to sink to his knees and beg, that isn't going to happen.

The big screen was first proposed by The Edge management under Greg Innes during the planning stages of the just completed $82.35 million redevelopment of the Aotea Square. Borrowing on installations overseas, it was to be an interactive, "community television screen", beaming debates and events from the adjacent venues to the crowds outside. You could text questions directly to the screen. It would also be available to display installation art. It would also be available for the odd concert.

The old city council rejected the concept - particularly the ongoing costs involved - and decided to exploit the square for its commercial possibilities.

In September last year, the city bureaucrats decided to turn the square into a giant outdoor cinema, with a sound system to match. They declared plans to apply to themselves, to raise the maximum noise levels allowed in the square from the existing 65 decibels to an ear-splitting 85 decibels for up to "45 screen events each year, including symphonies, festivals, major sporting events and films".

At that level of sound, you would have to shout to be heard by the person next to you.

Marshall Day Acoustics advised the council that the noise would be so great that the Town Hall auditorium would be unusable. The noise would also have disturbed users of the Aotea Centre foyers. The Edge management said the proposed noise levels were unacceptable and would make the adjacent venues unhireable. The bureaucrats, both from the old city council, and now the new, are ploughing on regardless. The only change they've made is to double the price of the screen - from $1.65 million to $3.07 million.

In an attempt to reassure cost-conscious councillors, we're told, "key relationships have been developed in order to procure screen content at minimum cost" and "contractual discussions are under way with a naming rights sponsor". Welcome to the Heineken Aotea Square.

Auckland's lack of quality indoor theatre space is an ongoing scandal. Exacerbating the situation by rendering both the Town Hall and the Aotea Centre unusable one day a week, by turning Aotea Square into an outdoor concert/movie venue, makes no sense.