Guyra's main street upgrade has blown the budget, plans have been revised

The original plans were costed at $2.7 million, but, residents unhappy with the reduction in parking for outdoor dining sent the designs back to the drawing board.

Armidale Regional Council mayor Simon Murray said he hasn’t heard any objections to the revised plan.

“We were a bit short on cash so we were trying to work out where we could cut back – we didn’t want to take money from other areas like roads,” he said.

Now, works will start in front of the Post Office instead of the council office, eliminating the reconstruction of the Mackenzie Street roundabout at a price tag of $260,000.

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The LED lighting and smart poles will stay, as will the street art, but council will buy cheaper pavers expected to save $50,000 to $100,000.

Resident Aileen MacDonald said some people are still getting a handle on the revised look.

“We were getting used to what we had been presented with and now the goal posts have changed, so we’re kind of disappointed but resolved,” she said.

With $140,000 still over budget, council will investigate savings options during construction.

“They still need to find $140,000 but they think they’ll be able to pick that up on the way – the engineer thinks they should be able to because they’ve overestimated the budget,” Cr Murray said.

“You always plan for contingencies like wet weather which delay and cost you, hopefully with the nicer weather we can get savings in that area – whether that adds up we’ll see.”

But, Cr Murray said the shortfall wouldn’t stop the project reaching completion, which is expected to happen in mid-December.

“Whether we do take money out of one area for the short term and put it back in the budget later on, it will be completed and completed with the design that we’ve got,” he said.

A number of other items were left out of the original budget, including additional design work and extended community consultation, paint for business shopfronts, street art and structural inspections of awnings.

Council had two options at the June meeting, to trim the design or use Stronger Regions Funding dedicated to fixing Rockvale Road [$440,000] and upgrades to timber bridges [$84,000], which would have needed approval from the Office of Local Government.

The project commenced on July 16, council will begin roadworks on one side of Bradley Street at a time.

The finished upgrade will include disability access to shopfronts.