Wyndham councillors have questioned the logic of an independent report that compares the pricing at Encore Events Centre to venues in the eastern suburbs.
The council recently commissioned an independent report on the pricing at Encore in response to a petition lodged last December calling for prices to be reduced.
Subsequent benchmarking found that Encore was comparable to the average prices at Hawthorn Arts Centre, the Ivanhoe Centre, Frankston Arts Centre and Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre and was considered to be in the “upper middle” section of the market in terms of quality of the venue and services provided.
Cr Gautam Gupta questioned why Encore was compared to venues in Hawthorn and Ivanhoe.
He also questioned whether works done during the centre’s redevelopment justified the price increases.
“The report says the pricing is benchmarked with Hawthorn and Ivanhoe, but you can’t compare Wyndham with Hawthorn and Ivanhoe … they have median house prices of over $1 million,” he said. “How can we compare that?
“[The pricing] is exorbitant, given it was a publicly funded project.”
Fellow councillor Marie Brittan said it was not clear what criteria the consultant used to compare the different facilities.
“Let’s make sure the right questions are asked,” she said. “We need to see the breakdown of all components.”
But Cr Bob Fairclough said he was satisfied with the finding.
“It needs to be emphasised that the full service includes not only the pricing of the meals but also the price of security, cleaning, decorating and event management,” he said.
“I’m now reassured that pricing for full- service events is reasonable.”
Wyndham council will now conduct a review of the business model in place at Encore to “ensure it is best meeting the needs of the community”.
