Councillors last week voted to award a new three-year cleaning contract that would be worth a maximum of $2.64 million if it was extended for the two optional extra years.

The tender is worth $399,711 a year but would be as much as $480,000 with provisional items included - and those figures don't include GST.

That's a major hike in cost of a year's cleaning at the council's facilities with last year's extension of the previous contract worth $277,600.

But keeping the council's buildings clean has become even more important during COVID-19 which, along with inflation, has driven up costs, council said.

"The need has been more pronounced due to the current pandemic and the need to protect the community through high hygiene standards," it said.

Buildings covered in the new contract include the Civic Centre, Lighthouse Theatre, art gallery and Archie Graham centre.

Cr Max Taylor told last week's council meeting that he was content to see the cleaning contract be awarded to a local contractor following a six-week tender process.

Deputy mayor Richard Ziegeler said it was always nice to see a local contractor get a tender but they had to be competitive for economic purposes. The motion was passed unanimously.

The new contract covers the council's main buildings but the agenda did not list which ones they were. It did point out that it did not include the cleaning of public amenities which sit under a separate contract.

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The tender process for the contract was undertaken during the statewide lockdown and was conducted via virtual walkthrough. Only 14 of the 20 interested companies submitted tenders, with council staff reporting some were turned off by the inability to see the facilities in person.

In 2016, the council's last three-year cleaning contract was awarded with an option to extend it on a yearly basis over the following two years.

In May last year, the previous council extended the cleaning contract at a costs of $277,605.44 a year. It included cleaning the civic centre, library, art gallery, Archie Graham Centre, Aquazone, stadium, Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, Children's Services Centre, Florence Collins Children's Services Complex, Lighthouse Theatre and Harbour Pavilion.

At the time, previous councillor Kylie Gaston said that contract provided good value and service. The contract extension had been brought before councillors to vote on because the amount exceed delegation limits - an amount that was last week increased to $400,000.

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