5 Jul 2018

Taxpayers' Union close to filing legal action over touch screen wall

8:07 pm on 5 July 2018

Christchurch ratepayers are forking out $1.24 million on a touch screen wall in the city's new central library.

Christchurch City Council

Christchurch City Council Photo: 123RF

The $92.7m Christchurch City Council facility, known as Tūranga, will include up to 100 computers, 3D and laser printers, music studios, video editing suites and a 200 seat theatre.

But the council had come under fire from the Taxpayers' Union for refusing to release the cost of one of the biggest pieces of tech - a 7m touch screen wall.

Today the council said the wall has cost $1.24m.

"It was always the council's intention to release the figure - it was simply a question of timing," the council's head of libraries, Carolyn Robertson, said.

The Taxpayers' Union said it was about to file legal action, and the council releasing the cost was a major win for government transparency.

"This was an eleventh-hour backdown from the council," Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams said.

"We literally had the affidavit signed, papers prepared, and were ten minutes away from filing in the High Court.

"It says everything about the council's priorities that they would spend over a million dollars on a touch screen while basic infrastructure is in poor shape and rates are skyrocketing."

The council has recently adopted a long term plan that includes a 53 percent rates rise over the next decade.

But Ms Robertson said the touch screen wall was worth it.

"It represents significant value given the nature of the technology and the incredible amount of work currently going on behind the scenes to set it up so that it's uniquely and intuitively Christchurch's," she said.

The library is expected to open later this year.