Norwood mayor in last-ditch effort to stop $100k grand piano purchase

A grand piano an Adelaide council wants to replace with a new one valued up to $100,000 was used at just eight events over the past year.

Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council Mayor Robert Bria will attempt to stop elected members from spending $100,000 on a grand piano. Picture:AAP/Simon Cross.

• Council commits to buying $100k grand piano
• $100k grand piano is “peanuts” councillor says

A Norwood Concert Hall piano the local council wants to replace with a new one valued up to $100,000 was used on just 10 days this financial year, Mayor Robert Bria says.

Mr Bria, who is lobbying Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council to rethink its commitment to buy a new piano, said the existing one was used for only eight events in 2018/19.

The council – in the absence of three elected members – voted 6-4 to spend up to $100,000 on a piano at a council meeting on June 12.

Adelaide Summer Orchestra had lobbied for the new piano.

In a letter to the council, orchestra concert manager Aileen Chatterton said the hall was lacking a concert grand piano and that the existing piano was “well below concert standard”.

Mr Bria will ask elected members at a meeting on Monday night, when the council’s annual budget will be finalised, to withdraw support for a new piano.

“The (Norwood) Concert Hall manager does not believe that the Norwood Symphony Orchestra used it at all over (the past year),” Mr Bria said.

He said the proposed purchase had received a poor reaction from the community.

“It’s been mostly negative,” Mr Bria said of the feedback.

“It wasn’t unexpected. It (negative feedback) should not put council off making decisions in the public interest, but given the current economic climate, it is not in the community’s interest.”

Mr Bria said the decision had “overshadowed” a very good budget and had “essentially blunted” its good news of low residential rate increases in recent years.

“Perhaps the most important statement in the staff report (to elected members) is: ‘The council’s preferred piano tuner has assessed the existing piano to be in good working order’,” Mr Bria said in an official motion to the council.

“It is, therefore, difficult to understand why the council felt the need to fix something that wasn’t broken.

“If the concert hall did not have a piano, or the piano was in such poor condition that it would be more economical to purchase a new one rather than waste money on repairs, then a reasonable argument could be made to purchase a new one.”

He also said there would be a solid case for a new piano if the hall was missing out on bookings because the council did not have one.

He believed there was no evidence to suggest the existing piano was a “deterrent” to music groups booking the hall or a new piano would attract more performances.

Mr Bria said the “extra pressure” of a 40 per cent increase to the state landfill tax would add “extra scrutiny” on how the council spends ratepayers’ money.

“It (the landfill tax) should give them pause for thought about where council’s priorities are,” he said.

“In this sense, the optics of a new piano are not good.

“Elected members should all ask themselves... is the purchase of a new grand piano for the Norwood Concert Hall justified?”

The Norwood Symphony Orchestra has been sought for comment.