There comes a point in every major public project when numbers stop being an inconvenience and start becoming a concern. For the $43 million Princess Theatre redevelopment, that moment came when councillors were asked to consider $3.5 million for a hydraulic orchestra pit lift, a blowout from an initial $1.6 million estimate.

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Installing the hydraulic orchestra pit would not have been prudent financial management; it was playing poker with ratepayers' money.

Deputy Mayor Hugh McKenzie rightly called the proposal "financial suicide," and the technical reality backed him up. Installing the proposed hydraulic lift meant underpinning footings and propping stage structures inside a 116-year-old heritage building that, as project managers discovered, lacks proper foundations.

Beyond structural risks, the project threatened a two- to four-month delay, jeopardising $2 million to $4 million in grant money. Add an annual $110,000 maintenance bill and a supply chain dependent on Serapid, a French company with its nearest office in Singapore, and the setup mirrored the ongoing headaches of the Gorge Inclinator. One mechanical fault could halt a production while local techs scrambled for international........

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