New questions have been raised over the tender process and delays surrounding Kyneton’s long-awaited skatepark redevelopment, with construction costs now estimated to be up to $1 million above the original budget.
These questions come from local designers Baseplate and EastbyWest, whose quote to design the project was unsuccessful despite receiving a higher raw score than successful tenderer, Melbourne-based Convic.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show council had a design budget of $99,000.
Baseplate/EastbyWest submitted a $58,640 quote based on the $1.5 million construction budget and 1200-square-metre skatepark outlined in Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s Skate and BMX Strategy.
Their proposal also included detailed design and documentation for an adjoining BMX pump track and basketball court as a value-added service.
Another supplier submitted a $32,200 quote for skatepark documentation only, based on a $750,000 construction budget.
Council emails indicate officers intended to contact that supplier after the Request for Quote had closed and invite it to submit a revised quote covering the additional items included in the Baseplate/EastbyWest proposal.
Two responses were ultimately assessed – Baseplate/EastbyWest’s original $58,640 quote and Convic’s $48,530 quote.
Convic was awarded the contract in December 2025.
While Baseplate/EastbyWest received a raw score of 44 out of 50, compared with Convic’s 42, the weighted scores gave Convic the overall win by 0.05 points.
Baseplate designer Darren White questioned the result and lodged a FOI request seeking the evaluation documents.
Council provided 30 pages of documents, a score comparison spreadsheet and an email response in July. It said no evaluator notes, panel deliberations, comparative scoring commentary or price-score calculations could be found.
Mr White has also questioned the price-score given to Baseplate/EastbyWest.
He said council’s procurement toolkit referred to a Municipal Association of Victoria best-practice formula, which divides the lowest tender price by each submission price.
Using that formula, he calculated Baseplate/EastbyWest’s price-score should have been 0.83 rather than the 0.80 recorded in council’s spreadsheet.
“While this is a discrepancy of just 0.03, a score of 0.83 would have resulted in Baseplate/EastbyWest achieving the highest overall score for this contract after weighting,” Mr White said.
He also questioned whether it was appropriate for council to approach a supplier after the tender deadline to revise its fee proposal based on additional work identified in another submission.
Council’s director of assets and operations, Dominic Testoni, declined to answer specific questions about the scoring and price calculations.
“Council has previously reviewed these matters and remains satisfied that the procurement process was conducted in accordance with council’s Procurement Policy and applicable governance requirements,” he said.
“Accordingly, council will not provide further comment on these matters.”
DELAYS AND COST BLOWOUT
Concerns have also emerged over the project’s progress since Convic was appointed.
The first community consultation was held in February, two months after the contract was awarded, followed by a second consultation in May to present a draft concept.
Five months later, the design is still being revised.
The council’s Your Say project page previously listed the final concept design as due in mid-August, but this was changed to October at the end of August.
Mr White said community members were dissatisfied with the consultation process and claimed the skatepark size had not been clearly understood by Convic or council officers.
A draft concept report prepared by Convic, a design and construction company, estimates construction will now cost between $2 million and $2.5 million – up from council’s previous $1.5 million budget.
The report attributes the increase to construction cost escalation and site constraints, saying the full scope outlined in the Skate and BMX Strategy can no longer be delivered within the original budget.
Mr White has questioned whether the increased construction cost could also lead to a variation in Convic’s design fee.
Mr Testoni said the final project cost, including delivery considerations and contingencies, would be confirmed when the concept design was released later this month.