Taking a dive

What use an aquatic facility without a diving pool, specially when your divers are top class? That's what Watchers are asking today after awakening to the news that the Splash Centre won't have a diving well.
A worried Watcher has asked "How much does it depend on the council being able to sell enough property to put its share on the table?" Entirely dependent, if the Council minutes for 15 December 2004, which we reported at length elsewhere, are to be believed:

The capital funding allocated in the LTCCP for 2005/06 for the Splash Centre extension has been excluded from this Annual Plan, as it will be funded from the sale of non-performing or under-performing Council assets (land and property).

The Council intends to fund the Splash Centre extension and the city waterfront development from the sale of non-performing or under-performing Council assets (land and property). These properties were advertised concurrently with the annual plan. The Splash Centre and riverfront development will be funded from future asset sales. Neither the asset sale proceeds nor the capital costs are included in this Annual Plan.

Total costs were then estimated $4,000,000 with a rise in annual operating costs from $334,000 to $825,000.

Another Watcher asked "I hear the splash centre people are a bit demoralised at all the hoops they seem to have to jump through to get some real progress. Wasn't there some sort of December deadline to being construction?" Not quite. The plan in December 2004 was that:

"Subject to the Community confirming the Splash extension as their first preference and all the funding being in place, the Council will be in a position to accept the lowest tender from July 2005 and the extension should open its doors as early as July 2006".

Tenders for construction? As far as LawsWatch is aware, there aren't even finalised working drawings, let alone tenders being let. So don't plan on dipping your toes into the new pool in nine month's time.

Perhaps it's that awkward matter of the Diva having made promises he expects others to pay for, quantified in that December 2004 report as $2 million:

At present [December 2004] there is a $2,000,000 shortfall in funding which will need to be raised before work can be commenced.The timeframe for the project is six months for finalising the design and 12 months for the physical works until the doors are officially opened to the public.

So who's paying? Well, according to Ian McGowan's response (on 29 April 2005) to a Watcher's enquiry, it's the Splash Centre's problem, not Council's, at least insofar as covering the increased operating costs:

"Mayor Michael Laws says... additional operating expenses of the two major projects (i.e. the Sarjeant Gallery and Splash Centre Extensions) would need to be borne by the organisations responsible for running the facilities and not by the Council. Council's contribution is the capital funding and proponents of some projects may need to cut their cloth as a consequence".

But what of the shortfall in construction? Other than talk of asset sales, there doesn't seem to be a plan apart from the Diva's promise to personally help raise funds in some unspecified way.

Meanwhile Splash proponent John Unsworth (who can't be bothered answering the seven simple questions we put to him by email in September) was relentlessly upbeat, as befits the "good news" paper:

Discussing funding, John said the Powerco Community Trust’s contribution of $500,000 had been a tremendous start, and the Wanganui District Council had committed $2.5 million over two years, with $1.25 million available from July 1. So he hoped the project would be kicked into life this year.

The extension was a council asset and project and the Wanganui Splash Centre Development Committee would work with council to find the necessary funding. Work on the extension could begin by the end of the year, John said, "and by 2007, hopefully, it will be operational."

So have they had a cheque for $1.25 million in their hands since July? Surely much would have been made of the hand-over of such a sum, since the Diva has never been backward in coming forward at such events as his antics this weekend proved.

And Mr Unsworth's definition of "operational" seems not to include any facilities for Wanganui's brilliant divers.

The first piece of cloth has been cut from the Diva's coat. More no doubt will follow. When they're all gone, will some small child, we wonder, divine that the emperor has no clothes?

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