Invercargill City Council’s temporary chambers are set for a spruce up amid issues with sound and live streaming.

In May, the council shifted its chambers from the organisation’s main building — Te Hīnaki Civic Building — to the Victoria room at Civic Theatre.

Decisions are still to be made on the ageing Te Hīnaki building, but the council has indicated it could take up to six years to sort permanent accommodation.

A report prepared for Tuesday’s full council meeting proposed steps to make its temporary chamber “fit for purpose" while decisions are made on council's long-term home.

That included renaming the room as Council Chamber and creating a reference group for upgrades.

“It will be very clear to all members that the sound quality in the Victoria room is not as good as it could be,” the report said.

“We have identified a number of reasons for that, including that the ceiling speakers were only designed for background music, not the robustness of a council debate.”

Issues were also identified with the quality of the livestream, which the council believed could impact community engagement.

A range of other changes were also put forward, including moving the refreshment area, reducing the size of the table at the front of the room, moving photos of Invercargill's mayors to the new site, and installing cabinets to display gifts from sister cities.

Councillor Ian Pottinger had already put his name forward for membership to the reference group, which will also include two other councillors or mana whenua representatives.

The council was in the scoping stage of the project, but hoped upgrades could be completed at the temporary venue by around March 2025.

No budget had yet been established for the work.

The exodus from Te Hīnaki Civic Building will see about 240 council staff relocate to other spaces over the next 12 months.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air