The rebuild rankles

Kapiti Coast District Council is fighting back against accusations it ‘‘ duped’’ the community over the scope of the refurbishment of its headquarters.

Community services group manager Tamsin Evans said work last week stripping down the old building to uprights and floor slabs had probably taken some by surprise.

‘‘ The extent of this work was always planned and was discussed at length at council but I guess there is a difference between seeing something on paper and the reality on the ground.’’

Ms Evans’ response was part of a written release after former mayoral candidate Chris Turver attacked the council over the scale of the project. He said the $8.1 million upgrade of the Rimu Rd building had turned out to be a complete rebuild.

‘‘ Not a word was publicly said about completely gutting the existing building and effectively starting from scratch with a brand new building.’’

Mr Turver said at least one construction firm offered to build the council a new two-storey office, meeting all the required specifications, for much less than $8.1m. He would not name the company.

He said the council put a ‘‘straightjacket’’ on construction firms, preventing them from coming up with imaginative and lower- cost alternatives.

However, Ms Evans said a number of building options were looked at by the council before it decided on the upgrade. These included erecting a new building on the site, having a new building elsewhere, or leasing new premises.

‘‘ We specifically asked [ consultants] The Building Intelligence Group to review estimates prepared to fully replace the civic building and they came back and confirmed that a new building built to our specifications would cost just under $14m.’’

Meanwhile, Ms Evans confirmed an offer had been made by a company to provide a new two-storey building in Ihakara St.

‘‘But this was some distance from the town centre and the estimate did not include a range of other costs.’’

The refurbished building will include new bracing, bringing the old frame up to modern earthquakeproof standards, she said.

‘‘The type of bracing can be seen on many of the older style buildings in Wellington that have been retrofitted.’’

Ms Evans said the demolition work is almost finished, but it will take a further two weeks for the debris to be cleared.