The apparent end to plans to combine the Waitaki District Archives, the North Otago Museum and the Forrester Gallery on the gallery site has left Waitaki district councillor Hugh Perkins ''really disappointed''.
The Waitaki District Council announced that at a March 12 workshop councillors decided to go back to the drawing board on the seven-year-old project to pursue opportunities presented by the inaugural $1 billion a year provincial growth fund the Government had initiated.
Cr Perkins was chairman of the project committee for about three years before stepping down from the role in June last year.
At the time he cited a lack of support for the project from councillors, which had delayed the project, caused extra work for staff and wasted ratepayers' money.
Yesterday, he was philosophical about the council's new direction, but said it would not surprise him if there was bitterness in the community about the decision - and he sympathised with those who were disappointed.
The project's previous council leader, the former council community services group manager Dr Thunes Cloete, had created a compromise proposal that council management had approved, which balanced the wants of the district's ''culture vultures'' with the general ratepayers', Cr Perkins said.
''It wasn't perfect, it wasn't going to make people on all sides blissfully happy but it was a compromise that would work - that's been dumped,'' he said.
''There are options, and I am not completely downhearted about the options. I just feel that good work was done on the previous project.''
Friends of the Forrester Gallery chairwoman and representative on the project's advisory committee Sue McLean said financial ''red flags'' had caused concern and the decision to hit the reset button on the project was not a complete surprise.
''It wasn't a complete surprise, no, and while the initial reaction of the Friends committee was huge disappointment, now that there's more information we can understand the reasons for not progressing as it ... stands.''
Pausing the project now was ''probably quite prudent'' in order to have another look at it to look to see where it would fit within the vision for the district's future
''It was always going to be a squash to fit three facilities in it [the Forrester Gallery site in Thames St] ... maybe it is a good time now to pause to look and listen to what [Waitaki District Council chief executive Fergus Power] has to say, where he sees heritage going,'' she said.
''And make sure we are building a facility that is future-focused and just right for Waitaki and we'll be able to tell our stories in an exciting and innovative way.''
Outgoing gallery, archive and museum director Jane Macknight, in an email, confirmed her decision to leave her role to take up another position was ''made well in advance of recent events''.
She declined to make a public comment on the council's decision as ''things are pretty fluid'' and there were a lot of decisions still to be made.
