Changes to the Dunedin City Council's seal extension programme could save nearly $1 million, helping address the council's looming budget shortfall, but calls to go further have been ignored.
Councillors at yesterday's infrastructure services committee voted to defer a 2km part of seal extension work on unsealed Scroggs Hill Rd, near Brighton, saving about $800,000 in the 2011-12 year.
A report by council transportation operations programme engineer Michael Harrison said work to seal a 3km section of the road was delayed after the contractor, Queenstown-based Steve Rout Contracting, was placed in voluntary receivership in May.
The company had in 2010 secured a $230,000 council contract to seal the first 1km, but was placed in receivership part-way through and without seal being added, Mr Harrison said.
The contract for that 1km section would be tendered again by the council, with $88,000 expected to be paid to the company, instead used to pay the next successful company, as the council's contract allowed, Mr Harrison said.
However, sealing of the remaining 2km, which had been expected to follow, would instead be delayed, councillors at yesterday's committee meeting decided.
The council had a further $800,000 in the budget to complete that 2km stretch by the end of next year, but the money could also be used to offset the council's looming $8 million annual budget shortfall, Mr Harrison said.
His report recommended deferring the council's entire seal extension programme for 2011-12 and 2012-13, saving about $1.8 million, to help bridge the shortfall.
Cr Teresa Stevenson supported the idea, saying the council needed to "bite the bullet" and cut costs as it also faced peak oil and rising transportation costs.
"It's a luxury we can no longer afford. We have done a lot. I think we have done enough."
However, other councillors disagreed, voting only to defer spending on the remaining 2km stretch of Scroggs Hill Rd, which would be reconsidered at next year's long-term plan hearings.
