The panel had been asked to review the aesthetic aspects of a bridge design prepared by the New Zealand Transport Agency. The agency wants the input so it can apply for resource consent and put the project in the 2012-22 regional land transport programme.
Full costings have not been done, but two bridge options have been offered: reinforced concrete at an estimated cost (in 2006) of $17 million, or steel beam (about $3 million-$4 million less).
The panel said in a report on August 5 it supported a reinforced concrete bridge, as it offered a more elegant design than steel beam.
Commenting on its location near the existing bridge, the panel said: "It seems as if the two are engaged in some titanic struggle in which both seek to occupy the same abutment position along the river bank when there is only room for one".
Later, discussing landscaping, the panel said: "But once the road lifts from the group to leap across the river, it is not landscaping that will affect the aesthetic outcome." The panel also said "the jump over the river ought to give travellers a sense of arrival" in Queenstown.
At yesterday's council meeting at Lake Hawea, Ms van Uden attacked the panel's work.
"It appears the two [bridges] are engaged in a titanic struggle ... If we want a bridge across that piece of water, the worst thing we can do is engage in titanic struggles and giant leaps ..."
Ms van Uden opposed a call by Crs Russell Mawhinney, Cath Gilmour and Jude Battson to go back to the panel for comments on cycling and pedestrian links.
"I don't think so. I don't want to pay for any more palavery words," Ms van Uden said.
Deputy mayor Lyal Cocks supported the mayor.
"I am really nervous about the emphasis being taken away from what we want here, which is a bridge," Cr Cocks said.
The council resolved to ask the agency to continue working on the design but removed all reference in the recommendation to a concrete bridge.
