Current council to decide fate: mayor

Vanessa van Uden.
Vanessa van Uden.
A decision about the proposed $50 million convention centre will be made by current elected representatives at the Queenstown Lakes District Council before local government elections in October.

During a question and answer session last week, Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden told members of the resort's business community a decision would be made by this council.

Former mayor Warren Cooper told Ms van Uden ''you cannot rush into this'' and claimed groundwork had not been done.

After the meeting, Ms Uden told the Otago Daily Times ''one way or another we need to get beyond the discussion'' and the council, with its current elected representatives, can ''reasonably make a decision'' for a number of reasons.

She said the council had consulted in accordance with the special consultative procedure under the Local Government Act, outlined a proposal which set out the upper limits to which the council would be committed and could still incorporate any deal into the annual plan process in the event the project was progressed.

The council decided to put the proposal out for public consultation at the end of last month, and many councillors do not agree entirely with the proposal for reasons such as location and size.

If new councillors are elected they would likely come into office in late October.

The question and answer panel also included council chief executive Adam Feeley, CBRE consultant John Schellekens and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment senior policy adviser Roger Wigglesworth.

The session, organised by the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, ran over time and a different view was heard from Queenstown hotels regional chairwoman of the Tourism Industry Association Penny Clark.

Ms Clark said ''20 years ago we were asking for a convention centre'' and congratulated the council for progressing the idea through public consultation.

The council has previously announced a site known as Lakeview, above the town centre, is the preferred site for the convention centre.

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