Reading silent on pedestrian safety
Reading Cinema’s Australian head office refuses to guarantee the street frontage of its quake-prone Courtenay Place building is safe for pedestrians beneath.
The company, which owns the central Wellington complex that was abruptly closed after a damning engineers’ report during the weekend, refused to answer any questions put to it yesterday by Stuff.
It refused to say whether it had been safe for the last 18 months, during which time it was open and people had gone to movies under the belief they were in a safe building, or whether it would release the new draft engineers’ report to Wellington City Council.
With the busy footpath outside the complex open to the public, the company was asked if this was safe for pedestrians. It refused to say.
It also would not say what percentage of new building standard – a grade given to establish quake-withstanding ability – the building had.
It said its only public statement for now would be the post it put on Facebook on Saturday.
‘‘We have received a draft report from independent engineers which, while in draft, discloses a potential risk in parts of our Courtenay Central Reading Cinemas if a seismic event were to occur,’’ that statement said.
‘‘The safety and wellbeing of our patrons, employees and tenants is of the utmost importance to us and as such out of an abundance of caution we have taken action to close the building until further notice while the assessment is completed.’’
It also gave options for people who had pre-bought tickets.
The decision to close the complex in the heart of Wellington’s highly-populated entertainment precinct came after engineers gave it a safety green-light to reopen in March 2017, following its closure in late 2016 because of damage sustained in the magnitude-7.8 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake.
Council project manager Phil Becker confirmed on Sunday that it had yet to see the draft report and there was no requirement for the building’s owners to supply it.
The council knew as much as anyone else about the situation, which essentially amounted to the post on Facebook and Readings’ website.
He had been verbally told that there was no danger to people on the footpath outside the building.
Wellington City councillor Iona Pannett, who holds the capital’s infrastructure and sustainability portfolio, said the council would meet the building’s owners to hopefully get more information. However, there was no guarantee it would get that information or see the draft report.