Stage South board member Ross Johnston said the arts community had been challenged to come up with a plan that was generally agreed upon for theatre infrastructure.
It had done so — upgrading the Playhouse and Athenaeum buildings and building a performing arts centre, he said.
"Now it’s time for you to be challenged," Mr Johnston told councillors on Wednesday at a 2025-34 long-term plan hearing.
"You need to come up with a generally agreed plan and a budget to make it happen."
Stage South was formed after the 2018 closure of the professional Fortune Theatre company and it has advocated for construction of a new venue.
It had also been in talks with community theatre groups and the council.
The organisation had its say at the hearing on Tuesday and Mr Johnston added his thoughts yesterday "as a motivational force".
It had been claimed Dunedin was a great, small city, "with arts and culture at its core" — "give me patience", Mr Johnston responded.
The council included $17.1 million in its 2021-31 long-term plan for development of a mid-sized venue, but the money was left out of the 2025-34 draft plan.
The council is facing a clamour of calls to reinstate the capital spend.
Mr Johnston said a plan and budget were required, "because that will mean you’ll start to walk your talk".
"After seven years of dithering, this is not the time for half-measures, it’s not the time for stopgap measures . . . not a time to weasel out with a response that tinkers around the edges.
"It’s time to implement the reasoned, comprehensive answers we have supplied."
The council would be a cornerstone investment partner, he said.
Mr Johnston said citizens had put many unpaid hours into discussions and negotiations.
The council then cut the capital spend from its budgets, undermining trust, he said.
"Why bother to be involved in a process if the body you are trying to support is not consistent, is not transparent and treats your efforts, your time, as something that can just be taken for granted — even ignored?
"I think you need to, and can do, a lot, lot better."
On Tuesday, Dunedin Repertory Society representative Brent Caldwell called for the $17.1m to be reinstated and to make sure the Playhouse would be the first theatre to be developed as part of a collaborative long-term plan for the city’s performing arts venues.
"For seven years the council and performing arts community have been discussing the question of which venue, [or] venues, could or should be refurbished or built," he said.
"And here we are seven years on, no further forward and dismayed to see the capital budget for this kaupapa has disappeared from the draft nine-year plan."
Mr Caldwell had his own challenge for the council.
"Your community is bringing solutions to you," he said.
"Do your sums, do your bit, do the right thing."
