Costs and deadline a worry on heritage railway station

Some Gore district councillors have expressed concerns about the costs involved in relocating and refurbishing the Mataura Railway Station.

The council bought the station in June 2019 for $1, and the Mataura Community Board planned to shift it to a new site in the town to use it as a community facility.

The station is a Class 2 heritage building.

The in-committee minutes of a Gore District Council meeting held on December 10, released under the Official Information Act, show council chief executive Steve Parry was negotiating to buy sections before Christmas and hoped to have agreement by midJanuary. This would then be subject to approval by the community board.

The funding of the land was up to the community board, and it had some funds, the minutes say.

Parry told the meeting it was a ‘‘cautious foray into a big project’’, and the station was getting more dilapidated by the day.

He said it was unknown whether the funds held by the board would be sufficient. The building also needed to be upgraded, and resource consent would not be granted unless there was a plan in place to refurbish it, the minutes say.

Councillor Doug Grant asked if the ratepayers of Gore and Mataura would end up funding the project.

Parry said the board had access to some funding including the Coster Fund, and there was an ability to apply for community funding also.

Mataura ward councillor Neville Phillips said he was cautious about the project and had expressed to the board that there was a lot of work and process to go through before the building could be relocated.

He said there had been an offer to move the building. If the board could not go through with its preference, then there was a plan B and the building would remain in the district.

Councillor Glenys Dickson said the council had been assured by board chair Allan Taylor that there would not be a cost incurred to the council when it agreed to purchase the building.

Cr Phillips said he was confident the board could complete the project itself without having to seek other funding.

On Friday, Parry said negotiations to buy two sections in Mataura were still ongoing, and he hoped to meet the owners, who lived outside the district, in coming weeks.

He said they were both willing to sell, but any sale would be conditional on a favourable price, and the council obtaining the necessary resource and building consents.

He acknowledged the council was running out of time to have KiwiRail’s conditions met.

KiwiRail offered the building to the Mataura Community Board in 2018, on the condition that it relocated the building, removed earthquake-prone risks in the form of existing chimneys, and upgraded it in conformity with any approved conservation plan that might be prepared due toits heritage status.