{"id":327454,"date":"2022-12-06T00:34:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T14:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=327454"},"modified":"2022-12-06T22:47:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T12:47:08","slug":"no-more-cash-for-ktp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2022\/12\/06\/no-more-cash-for-ktp\/","title":{"rendered":"No More Cash For KTP"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An artist’s impression of what Kingaroy’s upgraded CBD might look like at night … but some planned features may not be installed after Councillors voted against tipping any more money into the project (Graphic: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 6, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some features originally planned for the Kingaroy Transformation Project (KTP) will be reduced or not installed at all when work ends early next year.<\/p>\n

At November’s General Meeting, Councillors met in a closed session to hear a report on the KTP’s progress and consider a request to allocate an extra $80,000 to $260,000 to its budget.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project was originally expected to cost about $8 million when it was first proposed in mid-2017.<\/p>\n

But by the time work began in January 2021, its budget had expanded to $13.6 million.<\/p>\n

This money came from $4.5 million contributed by the Federal Government’s Building Better Regions Fund; a $2 million loan the Council had secured for the project; and $7.1 million from Council funds that had been set aside to upgrade the town’s ageing underground infrastructure.<\/p>\n

During the past two years, however, the project has been hit by a range of external problems that have increased costs.<\/p>\n

These included the COVID pandemic and the supply headaches it caused; five separate extreme weather events over the past year; and CPI increases of between 12 and 25.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

These hurdles have caused the KTP’s budget to balloon to $17.6 million.<\/p>\n

In closed discussions at November’s meeting, staff presented a range of options to complete some or all of the remaining portions of the project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These options ranged from $80,000 to $260,000, which staff suggested could be drawn from the Council’s 2023-24 depreciation allocation.<\/p>\n

After the closed session ended, Councillors returned to an open meeting to vote on the issue.<\/p>\n

Cr Gavin Jones moved that Council approve the extra funding, and this was seconded by Cr Danita Potter.<\/p>\n

However, other Councillors disagreed.<\/p>\n

And when the question was put to a vote, the motion was lost 4-3, with Crs Schumacher, Erkens, Duff and Mayor Otto voting against tipping any further funding into the project.<\/p>\n

More details about what remaining KTP features will be axed or reduced are expected to be known when Council staff prepare the project’s final scoping statement later this month.<\/p>\n

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