Childcare centre scrapped amid red tape blame game

Plans for a new childcare centre have been scrapped, with the developer blaming council red tape.

The proposed 512 square metre centre would have catered for up to 105 children.

But Blenheim has missed out as fed-up developers pull the pin on the project.

Land earmarked for the centre has since been sold back to the nearby Rose Manor subdivision.

Developer Chris Thornley, pictured above, says Marlborough District Council slowed the project by letting bureaucracy “get in the way of decision-making.”

It comes at a time when half of Marlborough's childcare services have wait lists for children aged between two and four years old.

“In the end we decided to pull the pin,” Chris says.

“The sad thing is Blenheim is the loser for it.”

Chris has been developing in Marlborough for more than a decade, completing two childcare centres and a retirement village.

“I’ve worked with about half of the councils in the South Island ... Marlborough's council went from being one of the best to deal with to one of the worst. It's an absolute shame,” he says.

His team had spent a year researching where a new childcare centre was most needed, and another year on a resource and building consent.

A resource consent was approved in 2019 following a hearing, held after a neighbour opposed.

But Chris says sitting on an empty site was too costly on top of consents which cost $150,000.

“It's a horrendous amount of money. The bureaucracy around the consent was unbelievable.”

The council warned Thornley in a letter last month that the project’s building consent was due to expire in May.

Rose Manor’s developer DeLuxe Group Ltd has confirmed the land will be turned into three house sections.

Marlborough Kindergarten Association general manager Corina Naus says while the region had seen low childcare wait times in the past, the current wait time was “reasonably high”.

Naus thought part of the increase had been driven by more parents wanting to return to the workforce.

“I think it’s just a ‘bubble’ we're going through,” she says.