‘Best option for us all’: Council says there will be a theatre

Wednesday, 11 September 2024

The council has given an assurance it will build a theatre, with the organisers of a well-attended public meeting in Timaru now wanting to find a way to work with the council.

About 300 people attended the meeting in person on Monday, with another 5000 tuning in online to hear discussion about the future of the Theatre Royal.

The theatre had been part of a $57.1 million Timaru District Council plan for redevelopment alongside a new heritage hub. However, that plan was dumped in July when councillors voted to explore new options for the facilities.

Meeting organiser Chris Thomas was pleased with the constructive nature of the discussions and said the focus now was on working with the council.

“Up until relatively recently, that didn’t seem an option.”

A partnership was needed because the “council can’t do it on their own and the community can’t do it on their own”, he said.

CPlay, the $3m playground at Caroline Bay that opened last year, was a “great example of that”, he said. “I’m very positive looking ahead.”

He hoped an action plan would emerge following the meeting.

Thomas, who organised for “myth busters” sheets to be handed out, said that while many at the meeting told him they knew the facts listed, he was aware of others in the community who were not.

During the meeting, at which a panel of speakers addressed the crowd and a lengthy question-and-answer session was held, there was a very clear theme from the council’s responses – to get the best value from any project.

The panel included Thomas, START (Save Timaru’s Arts and Rebuild our Theatre) founder Jess Young, and South Canterbury Museum Trust chairperson John Simpson.

District council chief executive Nigel Trainor provided responses to a number of questions and said the council had never said it was not going to build a theatre.

“They’re trying to find the best option for us all,” he said.

He said he met with theatre users last week who had identified ideas, with the services of a local architect, that would reduce the cost of refurbishment.

“We're hoping to try and bring the cost back as much as we can,” he said.

Trainor said the group would like to see the Theatre Royal, from the stage back, demolished and replaced.

When it was last looked at, removing the stage back had been too expensive because of the engineering required, he said.

Options would be worked through in terms of cost, he said.

The theatre upgrade was being peer-reviewed “to see if it is not over-engineered and it is fit for purpose”, he said.

The museum building, in Perth St, was earthquake-prone and a condition report was being done. “And it still has some other issues that we’re looking at as to what it would cost to fix those.’’

The Theatre Royal was also earthquake-prone, having been assessed at 33% of the New Building Standard (NBS) rating system, he said.

Its roof and floor, which was “full of borer”, needed to be replaced.

There had been a request to flatten the theatre’s sloped stage, and there was water under the stage that needed fixing, he said, adding that condition reports on all the council’s buildings were being completed.

The cost to operate the theatre, including insurance and maintenance, was “quite significant” at about $900,000 a year, Trainor said.

But that should not put people off, he said.

Those operating costs were built into the council’s Long-term Plan, but it still meant the council was running a deficit for seven years. It had to borrow more to cover the costs, he said.

“My job is to try and pull that down, which I would be doing with gusto.

“The 15% [rates increase] this year, though, is not impacted by this decision at this stage because the thing’s not open – it’s not even built.’’

Although a big decision was required, he believed the community would “come up with something that's sensible” by working together.

Mayor Nigel Bowen also addressed the crowd and said the council wanted a solution.

He said the next consultation would begin in October and he encouraged the community to contact councillors with feedback.

In closing the meeting, Thomas said he wanted to be transparent and not hide behind a label, referring to advertising taken out by a group under the banner of Conscious South Canterbury (CSC) in February.

The council had filed a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about a two-page advertising spread that was published under the CSC banner on February 22.

“I'm prepared to stand up and say this is really important to me and my community, our community,’’ Thomas said.

He said it was a challenge to all in the community to combine forces to get “these projects across the line”.

“And I'm absolutely certain that we can do that, but we have to work together.”

Thomas said organisers of the meeting would do as much as they could and urged everyone to take their own action.

“You are empowered to take your own action. If you feel so strongly, write to your councillors. Send them emails if that’s what you can do.”

He said the council would meet on October 22 to discuss the consultation document, and he encouraged others to go to the meeting.