Residents to decide on the future of Busselton Performing Arts and Convention Centre in community survey

The future of the proposed multimillion-dollar art complex for Busselton will now be in the hands of the community. City of Busselton councillors on Wednesday night agreed to reject all tenders received for the Busselton Performing Arts and Convention Centre, with the lowest coming in $13 million over the $24m budget. The City will instead open a community survey to allow residents to have their say on whether the potential state-of-the-art facility should go ahead. The huge price hike in development costs means the centre is at risk of being shelved or scaled back after the council voted 8-1 in favour of the amended motion to go to consultation, put forward by Mayor Grant Henley at this week’s council meeting. The council will also continue to seek funding from State and Federal Governments, in addition to the $10.35m already secured from the Commonwealth. The motion’s success came in the wake of the council rejecting a motion put forward by Cr Lyndon Miles, which called to accept the full $37,988,816 tender, with the 50 people-strong gallery cheering when the vote was lost 4-5. Mr Henley said his alternative motion was a good balance between the wants of the community and the need for transparency for the City. “I think there is certainly a need for the project and it’s been a long-held desire of the community,” he said. “It may be the full scope of the project is scaled back, it may be resignedly and extremely disappointingly that we don’t continue with the project, but we leave ourselves to at least hear the community through the survey. “This also gives us the option to support the initial funding and call in to Barnaby (Joyce, Federal Nationals leader) now he’s in the hot seat if he’s amenable to an extra couple of mill.” Cr Jo Barrett-Lennard supported the alternative motion given significant time had passed since the council last officially heard the desires of the community. “There’s still room to go back and have a chat with people who put tenders in and those who haven’t,” she said. “This gives us scope to find further funding and focus from the community. “What our needs were in 2008 and 2018 may have changed, they probably have changed, and so we need to go back to the community to ask them what they want and what they foresee the City of Busselton to be.” Bay to Bay Action Group president Anne Ryan welcomed the decision, saying it was a better outcome than more debt for the community, and allowed people to have their say in the matter. It was revealed in the meeting the City had spoken with Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan and Arts Minister David Templeman asking once again for further funding, but no response had yet been received by the council.