By Erin Bradnock, Local Democracy Reporter
Nelson City Council has announced that two earthquake-prone building notices have been applied to its home at Civic House.
Nelson City Council's Civic House has been served two earthquake-prone notices over the last week, despite strengthening works undertaken in 2021. Photo:
Council was notified last Thursday by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment of two risks identified in the building, including the bracing of the Tower Block roof which has been deemed "high risk", while ceiling tiles throughout various parts of Civic House have been found to not meet New Building Standards (NBS).
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese addressed the earthquake notices at the start of Thursday's full council meeting which, due to the notices, had to be held over Zoom.
"We will have more questions as to how we got here," said Reese.
Reese questioned the timeframe in which the council were made aware of the notices and accompanying risks.
"As I understand it, the notice was meant to be with the ministry in April and we need to understand why people who are using the building were not advised of that either immediately or in preparation for that process," she said.
Council staff have been relocated from the building's sixth floor for safety.
Council undertook support work in 2021 to install suspension wires and add braces to the 39-year-old building's internal partitions.
A building is labelled earthquake-prone once it is found to be less than 34 percent of NBS. For parts of Civic House, a third-party report commissioned by the council found that some ceiling tiles have been rated at less than 10 percent of NBS.
The council's chief executive, Pat Dougherty, said the council's focus was on staff and their well-being.
"It comes down to safety and managing risk. In the case of the ceiling tiles, a preliminary safety assessment has not found any reason for the building to be immediately vacated, but this assessment now needs to be externally reviewed and this will be done urgently," he said.
Elected members will have the opportunity to question the risks and processes of these findings at an upcoming Audit, Risk and Finance subcommittee meeting scheduled for 24 May.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air