Cull backs centre remaining in use

DUNEDIN City Council staff made the right call keeping the Edgar Centre open to the public, despite it being ‘‘significantly’’ earthquakeprone, Mayor Dave Cull says.

A seismic assessment found the building was 10%15% of new building standard. Below 34% means a building is considered earthquakeprone.

Despite that, council staff, based on external advice, had decided to keep the building open until an upgrade could be carried out in 2019 or 2020.

Mr Cull said the decision weighed the risks against the disruption of closing the building for a year or more.

That would severely inconvenience a huge portion of the population, would prevent many sports from operating and be really bad look for the city and the council, he said.

‘‘Given that there’s stacks of buildings around that have yet to be upgraded . . . the Edgar Centre is no worse this week than it was last week, so I guess we’ve got to work through it in a measured way, without bringing life as we know it to a halt,’’ Mr Cull said.

The building was used by 650,000 people a year.

The decision contrasted with Invercargill City Council’s stance. It closed three buildings — including the Southland Museum and Art Gallery — after they were found to be earthquakeprone.

Invercargill City Council chief executive Clare Hadley has said legislation required her to eliminate, or minimise, health and safety risks.

‘‘Guidance from WorkSafe also states that ‘For risks that have unacceptable outcomes, even if they have a low likelihood of occurring, look at credible worst case scenarios’,’’ she said.

Mrs Hadley did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. A recent WorkSafe policy clarification said if a building was earthquakeprone, ‘‘this doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t be occupied’’.

The Building Act gave Dunedin’s building owners 15 years to complete assessments, and 35 years to rectify concerns, because the city was a lowrisk seismic zone.

And, as long as owners were complying with the Building Act, WorkSafe would not ‘‘enforce to a higher standard’’ set out by the Health and Safety at Work Act.

‘‘While the risk of harm to people in or around an earthquakeprone building is greater than an equivalent new building, this doesn’t typically require shortterm action.’’

Mr Cull said the differing approaches in Dunedin and Invercargill ‘‘comes down to the judgement of the people who made the decisions’’.