A report into the Glasshouse tabled at the last council meeting confirms its finances and operations need to be overhauled, says mayoral and councillor candidate, Keith Wilkinson.
Mr Wilkinson said the report clearly shows that ratepayers are funding the Glasshouse to a tune of around $6.4M, with a downturn in visitations of around 10,237 from 330,925 in 2010/11 to 320,698 in 2011/12.
“You may have seen visitation figures of 870,000 being reported,” Mr Wilkinson said.
“These figures are across three years, but the reality of this is, the Glasshouse visitation has dropped by 10,237 visitors and this is significant.
“The glasshouse is a magnificent structure that all groups should be able to use, but at the moment the Glasshouse is costing ratepayers around $6.4M a year, which is a huge drain on council’s budget and something that ratepayers will not tolerate.
“There has got to be a better way of managing such a beautiful facility.
“I intend to implement a full and thorough financial, cost benefit analysis and examination of the operations of the Glasshouse.
“Good hard financial decisions need to be made so that the community does not keep paying out $6.4M each year.
“I promise the community that I will thoroughly examine the entire operations of the Glasshouse.”
