Park bench seats said to be worth $5000 a pop have raised eyebrows at Shellharbour City Council, with councillors asking the administration for a detailed cost breakdown.
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The outdoor furniture is listed in a report about setting up more dog agility parks across the city, following the success of a recently-opened facility in Oak Flats.
In a report, officers put forward three possible locations, and estimated that setting up each new park would cost about $60,000.
Of that, fencing would cost $24,000, gates would cost about $4500 and “embellishments” like a waste bin, bubbler and dog play equipment would total $12,000.
Park furniture would be especially pricey: bench seats would cost $5000 each and picnic tables would come in at $10,000 a pop.
Councillor Peter Moran said he thought the $5000 seats in particular were “a significant amount of money, given the nature of the equipment that is being provided”.
“If that is indicative of the cost base the council faces when providing infrastructure for the community, then I’m afraid that council might have to look at some very hard decisions about are our policies and processes for providing this infrastructure for the community,” he said.
“I’m not a fan of contracting everything out, but if it really costs us $5000 to provide a bench seat, then I think it’s incumbent on the council to have a look at whether that could be procured more cheaply from the private sector.”
Asked to explain the estimated $5000 cost, the council’s director or amenity and assets, Ben Stewart, said he did not think the real cost of a bench seat would reach that amount. Rather, he said “recent quotes” indicated that would cost $2500 per unit for a “large” bench seat.
That would also include works on installing a concrete plinth and perhaps a footpath around the chair, he said.
“There are a range of bench seats, it just depends on the size or the style,” he said.
Mr Stewart could not explain the discrepancy between his “recent quotes” and the cost in the council report, published last Friday.
When Wollongong City Council considered installing a dog agility park in 2016, staff estimated park seating would be about $2500 per unit.
At the meeting, other Shellharbour councillors agreed with Cr Moran, with Killalea State Park manager and Liberal councillor Nathan Cattell saying he also thought $5000 was expensive for a bench seat.
On the wider issue of dog agility parks, Mayor Marianne Saliba said she thought Shellharbour’s dog agility parks were “great assets for our community”, calling on council staff to prepare a dog friendly areas strategy and an implementation plan to allow for the roll out of other agility parks.
They will also look into segregating large and small dogs at the existing Oak Flats and Flinders park.
“We’ve got a dog lovers, and have a greater pop of dog owners in Shellharbour city than other LGAs in the region,” she said.
Staff have identified three suitable new sites for agility parks: Croome Sporting Complex Albion Park, Jock Brown Oval at Barrack Heights and Morely Park at Lake Illawarra.