A SIGNIFICANT shortfall in estimated costs for a Gawler Caravan Park redevelopment has seen elected members endorse almost double the anticipated amount for storage shed upgrades.

At Gawler Council’s July meeting, elected members were presented with a budget bid request of almost $137,000 to replace several old sheds and storage areas on the park’s property.

However, following a procurement process, tender prices council received were substantially higher than the pre-tender estimates, leaving a $105,100 budget shortfall.

During last Tuesday night’s general meeting councillor Brian Sambell urged fellow elected members to approve the increased project cost.

“I think the most important thing is that this is council’s asset,” he said during discussion.

“That caravan park is the top in South Australia, it is our asset and we should support it.”

Councillor Paul Koch questioned whether council could revisit the tender process.

“I’m concerned that it has doubled,” he said.

“If we don’t vote for this, is there a scope to broaden who you get quotes from?”

Council’s infrastructure and engineering services manager Sam Dilena shared elected members’ disappointment at the shortfall in estimated costs provided by local contractors.

“It is really disappointing and we have certainly identified this as a lesson learned,” he said.

“It’s such a low value of work comparatively with our capital works and I actually thought this process of obtaining industry quotes would be acceptable rather than a quantity surveyor which costs maybe $1000 to $2000.

“All the tenders that we received were very close together and there wasn’t a huge variability, so what that is telling us is that it’s about right.”

Mr Dilena said council had tried to work with the caravan park lessees to reduce the scope.

Although, according to a report, the park’s owners cited financial losses due to COVID-19 as preventing them from contributing to the upgrades.

Councillor Ian Tooley questioned whether the works were essential at this time.

“Must we do this now?” he asked.

“There is nothing in that lease that says we have to do it now. It just says we have an obligation to do it.

“It’s double what we thought and we should say ‘sorry we just can’t afford it now’.”

Elected members endorsed the upgrades’ total cost of $234, 195 to be included in the 2020/21 annual budget.

Councillors Ian Tooley, Paul Little, and Jim Vallelonga voted against the motion, while Cr Nathan Shanks was absent from the vote due to a perceived conflict of interest.