RCoW Council caught out on Town Hall lies

I’m just about done with the lies and deception of our council. I am appalled, shocked and disgusted with the manner in which the town hall issue has been handled.

Council’s own tender brief, supplied to the companies that provided a plan for the refurbishment of the town hall, states in its introduction, in the body of the specification and in the key selection criteria:

… construct a 500 to 600 seat Performing Arts Auditorium amalgamated with, and adjacent to, buildings known as the Wangaratta Memorial Town Hall and Playhouse Theatre …

… proposed to refurbish the existing Town Hall and Playhouse Theatre complex …

… refurbishment of the Wangaratta Memorial Town Hall and construct a Performing Arts auditorium …

… to be delivered within the strict limitations of the budget of $5.7 million to $6.7 million ...

… demonstration that concept plans meet the proposed budget of $5.7 million to $6.7 million ….

It seems that none of the submissions received by council satisfied the selection criteria as noted above. Therefore council embraced a non-conforming tender. This should have immediately raised an alarm - but then again, it was all done in secret.

Nowhere in the design brief does it mention that the current facilities can be demolished.

Only one of the tender submissions provided this option. Surely this is not fair to the other tenderers and surely council cannot guarantee that it has achieved best value for money when only one organisation submitted a demolition option. That is not what the council asked for. Usual council practice is to reject non-conforming tenders outright.

This entire process has been outrageous. It is wrong in every sense of the word and is a sad reflection upon a mismanaged and secretive council and administration.

The only sensible option for council to pursue now is to scrap the current plans, take notice of the ratepayers wishes, develop a new brief with criteria that is achievable within a supposedly strict budget and go to tender again.

The brief is a public document. If you ask nicely, then council may provide you with a copy. Otherwise, Councillor Justin Scholz has told me that he is happy to oblige.

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