Central Otago district councillors have put off a decision on whether to investigate alternative sites for the Roxburgh Entertainment Centre rebuild, opting instead to hear directly from residents at a community meeting set for December 11. 

Council staff, backed by the Roxburgh Entertainment Centre Project Steering Group and the Teviot Valley Community Board, had recommended councillors approve a $20,000–$40,000 investigation into one or two possible new locations.  

The work would have been funded from the $4M insurance payout following the February fire that destroyed the town’s historic hall and cinema. 

But after a passionate public forum plea and concerns from elected members about misinformation and community unease, councillors voted for a motion from councillor Martin McPherson to leave the decision on the table until after the December 11 public meeting. 

Speaking in the public forum, Teviot Valley Community Board member Gill Booth urged councillors not to commit any funding until they had heard from residents. 

“I think it’s important that the town does make the decision and not the council,” she said. 

Gill said discussion about shifting the centre had “exploded into a bit of anger and a lot of bad information”. 

“It has been bloody heated in town, I’m telling you,” she said.  

In her view, most people she had spoken to were “vehemently opposed to spending any money looking at anything” other than rebuilding on the original site, adding that “most of Roxburgh will cling like a limpet to bringing their town hall back to where it was”. 

Deputy mayor Tracy Paterson asked Gill for guidance on how to move the conversation forward, acknowledging “we are inevitably going to be left with people that are happy and people that aren’t”. 

Teviot Valley ward councillor Curtis Pannett supported pausing the process, saying it was important to correct “misinformation…that this is a decision that’s in motion”. 

“I think that it’s important that we hear from the community sooner rather than later before we make a decision,” he said. 

He believed some residents felt decisions were being made “without consultation, and that’s the biggest issue at the minute”. 

Curtis said the December 11 meeting should serve both as an outlet for the community to feel heard and an opportunity for staff to outline “process and pathways” for the rebuild. 

Mayor Tamah Alley, joining the meeting remotely from Queenstown Airport, also wanted the community to hear from staff about the “opportunity cost” of a new location, including the additional time and money that would be needed if the rebuild moved off the existing site. 

She said it was important residents “understand that process, then they can give us a steer on, ‘Hey, are we happy to wait two or three years’, or ‘Actually, do we want to get cracking on this’”. 

When tabling his motion, Martin said the steering group and staff would be “in a far better position to give a consensus feeling” after the community meeting.  

“We should be listening to that community,” he said. 

In her report to the council meeting, property officer Tara Bates said the project steering group thought exploring other sites was worth considering, calling the rebuild a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to create a multipurpose, future-focused hub for the Teviot Valley. 

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