After almost two months of fallout from the Timaru District Council’s decision to move on from a proposed $57.1 million heritage hub, a public meeting has been called to give the community a chance to have their say.
The meeting is set to be held on Monday at the Caroline Bay Hall and will start at 5.30pm.
Meeting organiser and South Canterbury Drama League board member Chris Thomas said he called the public meeting to give the public a chance to have their voice heard and to clarify some of the narratives and myth surrounding the project.
‘‘The decision made by the Timaru District Council to abandon the Theatre Royal and heritage hub project considerably blindsided theatre people and a lot of the public that also were expecting that project to go ahead.
‘‘I first started consulting on this in 2018 so it’s been six years. I don’t know how many meetings or submissions I’ve had on it so we thought after a long time there had been a really good design worked up.
‘‘OK, it didn’t give everyone everything but it was what it was. It had been costed and it was a largely fixed-fee cost. There were some small contingencies but they were well known and we had that government money.
‘‘It was surprising to have that result and to have it made because councillors said they didn’t have enough money or trust the figures. They just created a firestorm of reaction and I felt the public needed a way to actually have their voice heard.’’
He said the public reaction so far had been very positive and the interest had led to a venue change.
‘‘It’s really engaged people, they’ve sent lots of support. We were originally going to have it at Movie Max [Cinema] but we decided after getting significant support we’d move it to the Caroline Bay Hall.
‘‘In the end you don’t know how many people are going to turn up but I’m pretty sure it will be well attended.’’
He said there would be structure to the meeting but there would also be the opportunity for anyone to have their say.
‘‘Jess Young [Save Timaru’s Art and Theatre], who has been involved with this project will make some introductory comments and we will have a process of moderating questions.
‘‘I’m sure that there will be people there who are against the theatre and that’s their opportunity to say that as well.
‘‘I think overwhelmingly, though, people want to get on, get it done and get it back so we actually have a civic theatre in Timaru.For the most part people want that to be the Theatre Royal and not some concrete box.’’
The Theatre Royal has now been closed since 2019 after concerns were raised about the safety of the building.
Mr Thomas said the meeting was just the first step in a wider plan for action.
‘‘I do hope that we get a mandate, some people get given a mandate to actually speak for a bunch of theatre people and a mandate to take action.
‘‘I expect in the meeting we will talk about what some of those actions might be and that will be crowd sourced.
‘‘The idea is not to have the meeting and then go away but have a series of actions that will keep the theatre project right on the front page.
‘‘I’m still very positive about it all, I do believe we will end up with a good solution that the community are proud of and something that will be a platform, a stage if I can use a pun, to launch the reinvigoration of the southern end of central Timaru.’’
He said theatre was an important part of any community.
‘‘There are a whole lot of benefits associated with theatre and that’s not just for the people on the stage, it’s the people that go to the theatre, go to the events, they get a whole lot of energy and community pride.
‘‘Along with that comes the development of our town, that’s why we need a theatre. It will bring people in and bring people together, that social connection is so important for the town.’’
The meeting will also be livestreamed and uploaded online to a public platform for those unable to attend in person.
