Unless a significant amount of funding is received within the next month the fate of a performing arts and convention centre in Busselton could be left in the hands of the community.
The City of Busselton Council have agreed to hold out for one month to see if the state government will commit any funding to a performing arts and convention centre before it takes any further action on the project.
In a bid to reduce costs for ratepayers the city met with Culture and Arts Minister David Templeman and wrote to Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan to seek financial support from the state government for the project given the increase in construction prices.
The decision comes after tenders for construction came in at least $13 million over budget seeing city officers recommend that all tender offers should be rejected.
The increased costs were attributed to current market conditions in the construction industry which have seen trades in high demand and short supplies of construction material driving up prices.
If further funding does not come through without "significantly" increasing the financial contribution from the city then officers will be required to go back to the drawing board and seek further community consultation to review designs and potentially scale back the project.
It's likely the city will seek feedback from the community on whether they should proceed full scale and incur additional costs, scale it down to reduce costs or not go head at all and hand back funding to the federal government that was granted for the development.
The motion accepted by councillors was raised by mayor Grant Henley and supported 8-1, with councillor Sue Riccelli preferring that council put a minimum limit on the amount of additional funding that would be considered significant.
Ms Riccelli had raised a separate motion that if a commitment of an additional $10 million in funding was not received by the end of July then the community should be consulted to help inform future decisions on the project.
Cr Riccelli's motion was lost and in another amendment, councillor Lyndon Myles also moved an alternative recommendation.
Cr Myles proposed that the city should go ahead with the development regardless of the cost.
It was a narrow loss with councillors voting 4-5 against his motion.
With tenders coming in at least $13 million over budget this could have left the city priortising a performing arts and convention centre over other projects and maintenance work, using funds in reserves or seeking around a $30 million loan.
