Council, Reading meet over closed complex

Wellington City Council has met with the owners of the quakeissue-closed Reading Central but were not shown the draft report that led to the doors suddenly shutting.

The building on Wellington’s vibrant Courtenay Place, which houses a Reading Cinema and several other retailers, closed abruptly on Saturday after a draft engineering report discovered a potential earthquake risk in parts of the building.

The council only got word of the closure thanks to a courtesy call from Reading management on Friday night.

Earlier this week, it confirmed it had not seen the draft report that led to the closure, nor was the cinema company under any obligation to hand it over.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean yesterday confirmed the council and Reading had met but what came out of that meeting could not be released for up to 36 hours, giving the council time to inform mayor Justin Lester as well as relevant staff.

The meeting was ‘‘extremely satisfactory’’ and the council remained ‘‘absolutely’’ satisfied the building posed no dangers to those on Courtenay Place outside.

While the council had still not been shown the draft report, the engineers who wrote it were at the meeting, he said.

The verbal assurance satisfied the council, MacLean said yesterday.

The council remained ‘‘absolutely’’ satisfied [Reading Central] posed no dangers to those on Courtenay Place outside.