• Howick and Pakuranga Times

Digging deeper

DURING my years as a Manukau City councillor, I saw this time and time again, cost blowout after cost blowout.

In June, Mayor Len Brown said converting Shed 10 on Queens Wharf into a terminal would be nothing extravagant, costing $6 million, but now a further $22.7m is being put up so architects can improve the design.

Not bad work if you can get it, but how on earth can any costing be that far out?

Unless I’m mistaken, architects get paid a percentage fee on the size of the contract – the bigger the bill, the bigger the fee.

Why would you want to reduce the cost of the work, if you get paid more for spending more?

It’s interesting if you equate this to building houses.

For $300,000, you can build a pretty decent home. That means for $28.7m, you could build approximately 100 homes, probably bigger than most subdivisions. It quite simply does not stack up.

A Covec report last year said a terminal could be built for $6m to $10m.

Surely we want tourists off ships to get out and see the wonders of our city, not be blown away by the extravagance of the terminal.

Bob Wichman, Dannemora

Thank you, Val

I’M SURE I’m speaking not only for myself, but also on behalf of many caregivers and relatives of patients at Howick Baptist Hospital when I say a big thank you to Val Sugrue, for the wonderful commitment she has made to the care of the elderly.

Val has always been approachable, kind, and highly professional in all her dealings with myself and I’m sure many others.

She has been instrumental in the huge job of planning the renovation of the hospital and this has given patients their own private space of a very high standard.

She’s a great role model and has run a very good, loving and caring establishment. She will be sorely missed and a hard act to follow.

Maureen Hueting, Howick