Former Augusta-Margaret River Shire president Mike Smart lashes latest Margaret River Heart call

Former Shire president Mike Smart says ratepayers will continue to get stung by “incomprehensible” running costs for the Margaret River Heart.

The Augusta resident was a past fierce critic of what he described as the convoluted process to redevelop the old Cultural Centre — with the Heart still incurring legacy costs this year as a result — as well as previous efforts to have the venue run by Arts Margaret River.

The Shire of Augusta-Margaret River last week bowed to several years of public dissatisfaction by confirming a new management deal was in the works with the region’s premier arts body to bring a true local touch to the Heart.

Arts groups and users provided withering criticism of the venue, its leadership, and a complicated and misleading facility-hire grants process in a consultants’ report which informed the council decision, made without full disclosure on August 24.

“It really does seem incomprehensible that a facility that according to the ‘business plans’ provided prior to construction would be revenue neutral is now being budgeted to run at a loss of about $1.3 million annually,” he told the Times.

“On top of this there are capital expenses this year of $830,000 for fire safety and floors and . . . still counting into the future.”

Former Arts Margaret River treasurer Pierre Every, who earlier this year called for greater efficiency to reduce projected Shire rates rises, said the Shire’s latest media release left “many unanswered questions”.

Although he welcomed — and had championed — Arts Margaret River coming back into the fold, he urged the Shire to disclose the fine details of the new $1.389m funding arrangement, including staff numbers, and how much the arts group itself would be paid for running the venue.

“I believe that ratepayers who fund the running of the Heart have the right to know,” Mr Every said.

“It appears that the approach of the current councillors is to keep all of this very secret and I would welcome a more open approach so that ratepayers can assess whether or not this new deal is going to be beneficial.”

Mr Smart said the Heart project was “fanciful” since inception.

“It would appear no one has been a winner up to this point and the ratepayer will definitely be a loser for many years to come,” he said.

He previously criticised the process of developing the Heart in stages, warned as more expensive, with project components twice rushed through council meetings as items of urgent business.

“The whole process has got flaws in it,” he said in a 2017 meeting.

At the same time, as a councillor Mr Smart rebuked Arts Margaret River receiving about $300,000 from the Shire each year to subsidise running the cultural centre, despite the impost on ratepayers now being much greater.