$8m new cost for council building work

The budget was $7.3 million at the beginning of the year but the council had already spent $658,000 on various items, leaving just over $6.65 million to complete the project.

But the agenda for tomorrow's extraordinary council meeting shows there is still $7.3 million left in this year's and next year's budget to complete the building, ignoring the $658,000 already spent.

Council chief executive Warwick Issacs said the decision to increase the figure was made in the April budget round and he believed he had made it clear to councillors that $7.3 million was needed to complete the project on top of the money already spent, taking the project cost to almost $8 million.

However, the additional funding appeared to slip through the April meeting with no debate, which was surprising as last year the councillors were so desperate to save money they canned an updated entranceway on the building to save $100,000, after viewing 13 options, to ensure the cost of the revamp at $6.4 million. That figure was later increased to $7.3 million as costs rose.

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