THE Wellington City Council doesn’t need to sell land at the old Owhiro Bay Quarry to pay for the area’s refurbishment because it has already budgeted for it.

"There was money set aside for the restoration of that area when the council bought the land from Milburn Quarries," says Southern Environment Association (SEA) chairperson June Epsom. "We assumed part of that money was for the upgrade of the carpark."

Council plans for the refurbishment of the area included the demolition of an existing building and the sale of two vacant sections of land at the Owhiro Bay Quarry Carpark. Last November SEA used the Official Information Act to prove that WCC had not consulted the community on the sale.

The council was forced to retract an earlier decision to sell the land and a consultation document being prepared for the area will now ask whether the land should be sold.

Epsom is unsure of the exact amount put aside for refurbishment but recalls it was several hundred thousand dollars. She has been frustrated in her attempts to find out how much of that money has been spent to date and how much is left.

"We can’t get answers out of them. They say the money has been lumped together with the whole of the South Coast. It’s not good enough. Money set aside for the redevelopment of an area should be kept for that area.

"I thought we could just ring the council to find out where the money was. I was put through to the council’s chief executive Gary Poole but he put me through to the accounts department.

"They said that because they had changes their accounting systems, it would take too much money to investigate how much money was spent on a certain area."

A council spokesperson told Capital Times that no money was put aside at the time of purchase.

"When the council purchased the quarry in November 1999, it voted that funding for any rehabilitation work would be subject to prioritisation through the Annual Plan," says WCC communications manager Simon Beattie.

"Between 2000 and 2003, $500,000 was budgeted for rehabilitation [of the quarry area] and more than $450,000 has been spent on site restoration, safety and revegetation."

Future work planned for the site is estimated to cost a further $700,000 and that will be looked at as part of the Annual Plan process, says Beattie.