Adelaide City Council ratepayers have paid bulk of almost $100k bill to fix up Victoria Square

IT’S been revealed city ratepayers have paid well over half of an almost $100,000 bill to fix up Victoria Square damaged, in part, due to major events such as the Royal Croquet Club.

CITY ratepayers have paid more than half of an almost $100,000 bill to repair damaged to Victoria Square due, in part, to major events.

Despite a $28 million upgrade less than 18 months ago, the council has spent at least $51,000 of a $94,000 bill to relay turf and level sections of earth after the Tour Down Under and Adelaide Fringe Festival.

A council spokeswoman said the organisation spent $51,000 laying new turf on the northern side of the square while the council, TDU and Royal Croquet Club shared the $43,000 bill for repairing the square’s southern side.

The council would not reveal the breakdown of that $43,000 bill because of commercial confidentiality.

A council spokeswoman said the TDU and RCC, which hosted events on the square during February and March, were not required to pay to repair the northern side of the square because the turf had not been allowed to settle before the events went ahead.

“This (repair work) was in train prior to the events going on to the site and was always programmed to happen, which is why RCC (the Royal Croquet Club) and TDU (Tour Down Under) were not required to contribute to this work,” the spokeswoman said.

It is understood that the turf on the northern side was not laid properly when the Victoria Square upgrade was completed before last year’s TDU.

She said the cost of repairing the southern lawn was split based on the “time used, impacted area and those areas outside of the impacted area that needed maintenance covered by the ACC”.

Details of the deal has angered the industry group that looks after bricks-and-mortar venues in the city.

The hire fee paid by the Royal Croquet Club for using Victoria Square during the Fringe was $59,000.

Australian Hotels Association SA Branch chief executive Ian Horne said the RCC got an “extraordinary deal” for the use of the square.

“This just shows that bricks-and-mortar venues continue to subsidise the Royal Croquet Club, despite the claims from the council’s administration that it (the event) would pay the cost of repairing the Square,” Mr Horne said.

RCC co-founder Stuart Duckworth said the event “contributed significantly” to the cost of remediation Victoria Square but would not provide a figure to The City.

“It’s part of the costs of hosting an event in any council space that we pay to repair the site to the condition it was when we first started using it,” he said.

“The council has a formula for working out (which event) pays what because the site was handed over to us in less-than-perfect condition from TDU.”