Questions over City’s $600,000 awning

City of Sydney Councillor Angela Vithoulkas has broken ranks with her colleagues to criticise the City for spending in excess of $600,000 on a new awning at the Druitt St entrance of Town Hall House, the Brutalist ’70s skyscraper behind Sydney Town Hall.

The firebrand councillor, who hopes to unseat Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore at the next election, has expressed shock at the “exorbitant price” of the bespoke awning, which according to Council tender documents was commissioned at $589,690 excluding GST.

Living Sydney Councillor Ms Vithoulkas said that while the City of Sydney’s financial position was currently healthy, that did not justify spending “obscene” amounts of money unnecessarily.

“There’s no good reason why a new awning should cost $600,000,” she said. “Just because we have lots of money today doesn’t mean we should be irresponsible with it. It’s not our money to squander – it’s the public’s.

“You could build two houses with the money the City spent on that awning,” she said.

Ms Vithoulkas also criticised the finished product, calling the final result “shoddy”, and expressing concerns that the structure would be adversely affected by the growth of nearby trees.

At time of writing, a visit to the awning confirmed that some sections of the structure appeared to be held together by gaffa tape.

However, a City of Sydney spokesperson said while the awning was “substantially completed” last Friday, work had not quite finished, and that nearby trees had been taken into account.

“Works to the awning were substantially completed on Friday, 31 May and some minor additional works are being done by contractors this week,” said the spokesperson.

“Measuring twice the size of a normal bus shelter, its innovative design is column-free, allowing easy pedestrian movement through the area and leaving street trees undisturbed,” she added.

The spokesperson said the awning had been endorsed by the City’s Design Advisory Panel and Public Art Panel, as well as the original architect of Town Hall House, Ken Woolley.

The awning is expected to provide shelter to thousands of commuters each day, who use the bus stop next to Town Hall House on Druitt St, which is one of the busiest in the city centre, with thousands of commuters using it daily.

“It’s also an important thoroughfare for pedestrians moving between Town Hall Station, the Queen Victoria Building, Darling Harbour and George St,” said the City of Sydney spokesperson.