Thursday, 18 February, 2021
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$5 million St Mary’s School upgrade Federal Member for Maranoa David Littleproud cut the cake - and turned the sod - signalling the start of one of the biggest school upgrades in Warwick in many years. The school will become one campus, with major improvements... STORY INSIDE, PAGE 4.
A $15.6m option By Jeremy Sollars
Co principal Jim Wedge and its other members include Ross Fraser of Frasers Livestock Transport, agent Matthew Grayson and Graham Kirkland, along with Councillors Cynthia McDonald and Marco Gliori as councillor representatives. Both Cr McDonald and Cr Gliori voted in favour of the ‘greenfield’ option as members of the Saleyards Advisory Committee. Outcross Agri-Services has stated that a ‘greenfield’ site should be ‘located near Warwick on a site that provides access to B double trucks and road trains”. Councillors may vote on the ‘greenfield’ and ‘brownfield’ options at next Thursday’s meeting but Mayor Vic Pennisi has previously said the issue may not be finally decided this month, and may need to be the subject of a special council meeting. But the mayor has also said he wants a final decision made on the saleyards soon, as well as making it clear it is his personal view that ‘doing nothing is not option’, frequently referring
to workplace health and safety issues at the current saleyards as one of the primary drivers for either an upgrade or a brand new facility. The council’s business case includes a ‘SWOT’ - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats - analysis, which identifies one “threat” to the existing council-run saleyards as being a ‘private Saleyard operation commencing in the region’, but does not provide further detail about any backer or location of such a proposal. The business case states that while the ‘greenfield’ estimate is higher than the ‘brownfield’ option, the cost to the council would be recouped sooner due to assumptions about higher livestock throughput at a new saleyards. Specifically the document states that the “greenfield option is expected to be repaid (to the council) in 16.04 years compared with the brownfield site option, which would be repaid in 19.29 years”. MORE INSIDE - INCLUDING POTENTIAL SITES FOR NEW SALEYARDS ... PAGE 3.
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Consultants engaged by the Southern Downs Regional Council have estimated the cost of a new saleyards for Warwick at just over $15.6 million, while an upgrade of the existing facility comes in at just under $14 million. The Free Times this week obtained a leaked copy of the council’s confidential business case for the redevelopment of the Warwick Saleyards, which is due to be discussed at the general council meeting next Thursday 25 February. The document reveals the cost estimates of the future options being considered by the council for the Warwick Saleyards - estimates which the council has to date kept confidential despite them having been initially compiled by consultants in 2019. The figures in the business case are five per cent higher than those originally estimated by consultants Wiley and Co, who completed a Master Plan for the saleyards on the council’s behalf in August 2019.
Wiley and Co estimated the ‘greenfield’ option - a brand new saleyards facility - at $14,858,794, but another consultant, ProWay Livestock Equipment, later put the estimate for a new saleyards higher at $15,639,640. A major upgrade of the existing saleyards referred to as the ‘brownfield’ option - is estimated by ProWay at $13,956,163. The business case itself was completed by a third consultant - Outcross Agri-Services last year and summarises material compiled by both the council’s external consultants and council staff relating to the future of the Warwick Saleyards. A fourth consultant - engineering and environmental experts GeoLINK - also has input on the business case. Outcross Agri-Services recommends the council choose the ‘greenfield’ option, which is also the recommendation of the council’s Saleyards Advisory Committee. The committee is chaired by Ascot Cattle
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