At a Timaru District Council extraordinary meeting last month, councillors voted seven to two in favour of discarding initial plans to create a theatre and museum heritage facility in Stafford St, opting to seek a new site for the project on which a combined theatre, museum, library and civic space may be built.
Age Concern South Canterbury manager Chris Thomas said a lot of the people he dealt with were confused about what had happened.
"There was a report a week or two before the decision about the heritage centre project being included in the long-term plan and it had been agreed to by the council. Then it was dumped and we had another report saying it was being replaced by another proposed building and we could see the demolition of the library.
"So people I’ve been talking with are very confused about what has happened to the theatre and why we now need to get rid of the library."
Mr Thomas said many of those he spoke to had very fond memories of the theatre and were upset the next generation would not be able to experience and enjoy what they did.
"A lot of the frustration I hear about it is why is it taking so long to get anything done?
"Many of these people are 70, 80, 90 years old and they have danced in the theatre, have gone to shows there.
"[They] have had their kids ... in school things there and going to concerts and things like Operatunity."
Mr Thomas said many of those opportunities had been lost with the closure.
"For the most part since it has been closed, these things haven’t happened ... There has been a lot less things for them to go to and support their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."
"The whole Theatre Royal project seems to have taken the full brunt of the rate spikes, especially in the media or on social media.
"Amongst the people that are prepared to do a bit of work and find out the full story, they are generally landing in favour of getting on with it ... but there is no doubt about it that a 15% rate hike would have a impact on people.
"Not everybody lives in their own home but quite a lot do.
"Even the people who are in rented or council accommodation have their council fees or rental going up.
"Social housing owned by the council has just gone up 5.5%, so even though they don’t pay rates directly they are impacted by that."
He said costs rising across the board posed a big threat to the elderly community.
"Most of the audience I talked to was all superannuitants and there was an increase in the superannuation rate earlier in the year which was not a heck of lot but it was something.
"Other things in particular [such as] food have gone up, so the usual thing that pensioners do is they cut down on their living costs ... Healthcare, food and heating are some of the things they can control, so they cut down on those things.
"Everything is costing more, so what I’ve found at Age Concern is we are dealing more, especially as winter has gone on, [with] people struggling financially and needing budget advice or help negotiating with power companies or getting lower transport costs."
In a more digital age, he believed a lot of the older population could not always keep up to date with decisions being made or provide their opinion, Mr Thomas said.
"It’s fair to say there are different opinions. Some people were very hesitant about giving their opinion, others were quite frightened too, but I think overall there is a feeling of dissatisfaction with the way the council has gone about this.
"They want to see Timaru progress and not just held up with nothing going on.
"I am sure there is a large portion of the older population that I’m involved with that have supported and do support having a theatre here in Timaru."
He believed the older population would likely support the Theatre Royal itself "because of the heritage value and the history associated with it".
"There needs to be a lot better of an explanation from the council explaining why they made this decision and what this actually is because this something else is pretty vague."
- Disclosure: Chris Thomas is also a board member of the South Canterbury Drama League.
