No Christmas at Greenmeadows
Stoke’s Greenmeadows community centre will probably not be completed until January next year.
Nelson City Council’s group manager of infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, gave a brief update on the project at a meeting of the audit risk and finance committee on Tuesday.
Councillor Ian Barker asked for an update on the project, which had been left out of the council’s first quarterly report.
The construction of Greenmeadows was subject to delays, poor workmanship and budget blowouts, ending up with a budget of just over $7 million. Internal and external reviews of the project and council processes are in the works after the project is completed.
The selection criteria for the quarterly report delivered on Tuesday was projects that equalled or exceeded $1m expenditure in the last financial year, which Greenmeadows came under, despite it being a multimillion-dollar project.
Louverdis said most of the building would be finished in December, but the entire project would not be completed by then.
‘‘At this stage, the cafe has already been completed, and we will progressively move through the other stages of the building,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re hoping to be through many other stages by the end of December, but in terms of the entire building, we’re anticipating that will be some time in January.’’
The council was not able to give an indication of when tenants would be able to occupy the building.
It is understood the community services committee will receive a more detailed quarterly report of community service projects, including Greenmeadows.
Council CEO Pat Dougherty said staff had been ‘‘grappling’’ with exactly how much detail would go into audit risk and finance committee reports, which were meant to give an overview, and what went only to specific committees. ‘‘Standing committees will receive reports on all projects over $250,000 [spending in the financial year] or over $1m in its life,’’ he said.