‘Limited’ space at city council HQ
Space at the Christchurch City Council’s $113 million Hereford St headquarters is at a premium, with the number of public servants working there swelling.
Meanwhile, one councilowned organisation has spent more than $480,000 moving into its new digs, including forking out for the cost of air-conditioning and electrical work.
When it opened in 2010, 1183 city council staffers moved into Te Hononga – the city’s civic headquarters. Today, 1500 staff work at 53 Hereford St, which the council and Nga¯ i Tahu each spent $56.5m redeveloping pre-quake.
City council head of facilities, property, and planning Bruce Rendall said space in the building was limited.
‘‘Like all corporate real estate providers, the council constantly reviews space needs, trying to balance accommodation costs, utility and productivity,’’ he said. ‘‘There is some limited spare capacity currently in the building. However, the council’s first priority is to identify opportunities Bruce Rendall
to use this for accommodating core council services. Despite occupancy growth since council moved in, Te Hononga is large enough to cater for council’s foreseeable future accommodation needs.’’
The number of staff in the civic building had increased by 317 people for several reasons, he said. Following the quakes the council needed to deliver larger volumes of consenting, regeneration and rebuild activities, which had affected staff numbers.
‘‘The staffing levels within this building have also fluctuated as a result of the council’s evolving service delivery strategies, changing work-force models, project needs and response to emerging priorities.’’
Overall, the number of people employed by the council had grown from 2516, in 2012, to 3260 by the end of last year.
Rendall said the council had tried to reduce its accommodation costs over the past two years by moving staff into the civic offices.
No council-controlled (CCO) or council-trading (CCTO) organisations were based in the civic offices ‘‘as there is a strong need to keep the operation of these entities separate from the day-today business of the council’’.
Until recently though, 96 council staff worked in the same building as Christchurch City Holdings (CCHL), which is a CCO. The move was likely to save the council more than $400,000 per annum.
‘‘While the two organisations were located on different floors within the same building at 77 Hereford St, which was leased, there was an appropriate amount of operational separation,’’ Rendall said. ‘‘The level of operational separation differs between those CCTOs, such as City Care, where council has contractual relationships in competitive markets, and CCHL, which acts as an independent monitor of council’s investments.’’
Meanwhile, another CCO, ChristchurchNZ, spent $483,000 fitting out its new 1237-squaremetre offices in Cashel St’s BNZ Centre. Large rates increases are on the horizon for the Kaiko¯ura district’s 3500 residents.
The Kaiko¯ ura District Council’s draft three-year plan is proposing consecutive rates increases of nearly 17 per cent over the next two years as a preferred option. Rates on farms would have a maximum cap.
The district was hit by an earthquake in November 2016 that put State Highway 1 – the tourist town’s commercial lifeline – out of action for several months.
The additional rates money will be spent on infrastructure, including roads and water services, and on additional council staff and specialists.
Mayor Winston Gray in a statement said the draft plan ‘‘proposes some big improvements’’. He said the community was telling the council it wanted to better roads, services, water systems and assets than before the earthquake.
‘‘The proposed rates rises will allow us to make the improvements the community has been asking for. They will help us rebuild our horizontal infrastructure to better than it was preearthquake, rebuild some com- munity facilities, improve a wide range of our services and manage our assets better.’’
The plan would result in 66 per cent of rates money spent on operating and building assets – the largest chunk of spending. The district’s estimated rebuild bill for horizontal infrastructure is $37.9 million.
As well as roading, water quality improvements will be a key feature.
Under the plan, rebuilding horizontal infrastructure would be finished by June 2020.
It would mean there would be money for community facilities such as $700,000 towards a new swimming pool to replace the one that has been closed since it was damaged in the 2016 earthquake.