Closeddoor workshop to review Downer parks contract

AN URGENT Waitaki District Council closeddoor workshop will attempt to ‘‘get to the bottom of’’ why the council parks contractor, Downer, has struggled to keep up with its maintenance programme in the third year after taking over the council contract.

Recently, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher has defended the 2016 council decision to award Downer the council’s parks contract over the councilcontrolled Whitestone Contracting Ltd: first, in his regular mayor’s column in the Oamaru Mail, and then, in a followup article in the Otago Daily Times last week.

‘‘That’s now being thrown back in my face,’’ Mr Kircher said yesterday at the council’s asset committee meeting when he successfully argued for the workshop allowing ‘‘free and frank’’ discussion.

In the assets group activity report under discussion at the time yesterday, the recreation department listed steps the contractor had said it was taking to overcome issues it faced. These included bringing in new equipment and hiring a new team leader ‘‘as it is clear that the standards are falling due to a lack of leadership and technical knowledge’’, the report said.

In its third year of failing to keep up with strong spring and summer growth, Mr Kircher questioned whether the council was being treated as ‘‘fools’’ for not demanding better.

‘‘We’re just proving them right if they see us as fools,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve had enough.’’

Downer’s contract price was $1,641,029.38 a year.