Works undertaken before Manly Oval carpark was approved by council cost ratepayers $574k

The total known cost of the failed bid to build a carpark under Manly Oval has ballooned to more than $1.5 million.

Plans to build a carpark under Manly Oval have costed more than $1.5 million. Picture: Troy Snook

• Manly Oval carpark plans scrapped due to contractual and legal risks
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• Carpark advocates claim it will ease traffic congestion on Sydney Rd

MORE   than $500,000 was spent on the controversial Manly Oval carpark project in the two years before the former Manly Council officially signed off on it.

And Northern Beaches Council has revealed that the cost of reports prepared by Ernst and Young and Value Network, which led to the scrapping of the carpark, cost $94,000.

It brings the total known money spent on the failed bid to more than $1.5 million.

Aborted plans to build a carpark under Manly Oval have costed $1.5 million. Picture: Troy Snook

It follows a Manly Daily report last week that highlighted that the cost of cancellation of contracts and legal fees had set ratepayers back at least $780,000.

It is still unknown what the cost of cancelling the redevelopment of the Whistler St carpark could be.

Forensic accountant, and member of the Save Manly Oval Alliance, Bruce Kitson, said the finding of more money spent on the failed project left more questions than answers.

“The difficulty is, the things that cost all the money is the thing we can’t find, how much was the KPMG report? We don’t know. How much was paid to contractors and spent on reports? We just don't know,” he said.

Several community rallies were held to stop the carpark. Picture: Adam Ward.

However, he said the money lost abandoning the project was nothing in comparison to what could have been lost if the project had gone ahead.

“While we spent a lot of money abandoning this project, I have no doubt we have saved a lot of money … it would have been diabolical, it had the potential to send Manly Council bankrupt,” he said.

“If they can’t build a pool on a low-risk site in one year without the budget blowing out, how were they going to build an underground carpark on a high-risk site?

“It (the pool) was so much simpler to manage and they still managed to blow the budget.”

While the carpark plan was approved by the council in February 2015, the Manly Daily can reveal that spending on the project began in July 2013.

Members of the Save Manly Oval Alliance protested the ‘death of democracy’ outside Manly Council Chambers after being locked out of a meeting. Picture: Braden Fastier

Council general manager Mark Ferguson said costs included: staff salaries and time, environmental and geotechnical assessments, traffic modelling, feasibility studies and consultation.

It also included financial analysis undertaken by KPMG. Mr Ferguson said it was “not unusual for these types of work to be progressed on such a big capital investment”.

“There is a certain amount of investigative work for these types of projects,” he said.

He said the $574,000 was for works to September 2014 and were written off in accordance with Australian accounting standards.

He said they had to be shown as an expense now the money was no longer going towards upgrades.