There has been plenty of progress, just not visible progress.
Construction of the $56.75 million Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Te Pataka o ka Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, is tracking along Ashburton District Council chief executive, Hamish Riach, said.
“The tarpaulins and wrapping on the outside of the building is to enable work on the inside to proceed with relative protection from the weather prior to the facade of the building being attached,” Riach said.
“While this enables work to proceed, it does mean it is very hard to see building activity behind the tarpaulins.
“Once the facade is attached in the next few weeks and months, the building will look dramatically different.”
The project is still on track to be finished around mid-2023 while its budget remains under significant pressure, Riach said, because of “these difficult Covid times and skyrocketing construction prices”.
“We are very grateful for the $20 million grant given by the Government to the project as part of its Covid stimulus package.”
Ashburton’s new building will display the names gifted from Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua, Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, alongside the words Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Riach said.
Selwyn’s Te Ara Ātea, the multi-use community facility and library which opened in Rolleston in December last year, has been a topic of debate recently.
Rolleston Residents’ Association members want the Selwyn District Council to put the word “library” under the name of Te Ara Ātea on its signage because they feel people don’t know what the building is – despite it attracting over 100,000 people.
Before the building opening the Association had campaigned to have the words community centre removed from the project, as the Rolleston Community Centre, which had housed the old library, was being retained.
The Selwyn council decided to use the name Te Ara Ātea, which means the unobstructed trail to the world and beyond.

• By Jonathan Leask