David Loughrey

Delays to the Dunedin City Council's Wall Street develop ment in George St have cost the project $655,000 in lost rental and servicing costs.

A decision to put off paying interest on funding for the Awatea St stadium could cost Dunedin $132,000 in the next two years, and a council manager has warned the strategy should not become a habit.

The cost of Dunedin's 40-litre rubbish bags has more than doubled since they were introduced in 2003, and the 65-litre variety is not far behind.

Preliminary work to realign State Highway 88 to allow for the Awatea St stadium in Dunedin is set to start this year, after Dunedin city councillors voted to include $1.6 million for the project in the city's budget.

A new $150,000 contestable fund has been set up for economic development and job retention in Dunedin.

On March 17, the Dunedin stadium got what was probably the clearest message of political support when 10 of 14 councillors at a Dunedin City Council finance and strategy committee meeting voted to "commit" to the project in Awatea St.

Dunedin's rates are set to rise by 10.3% for the next financial year after some last-minute financial massaging brought the figure down from an originally projected 12.9%.

A new system of fines of between $250 and $2000 has been introduced for "building offences" - including anything from building, altering or demolishing without consent, to permitting use of insanitary or unsafe buildings.

Hanging baskets fell from favour, but most community groups asking for funding got at least a percentage of what they wanted when the annual plan committee considered their requests.

The Dunedin Botanic Garden upgrade provided a stark example of the difficulty councillors had taking anything out of the council's budget yesterday.