Temporary court building to go
OAMARU’S ‘‘portacourt’’ will be removed in March, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed.
The ministry’s commercial and property general manager, Fraser Gibbs, said the temporary courthouse in Humber St was leased and would be removed and returned to the company it was leased from.
The portable cell was owned by the ministry and would go into storage until it was needed for another project.
‘‘We anticipate the buildings will be removed in early March and that the site will be fully cleared by the end of April,’’ he said in a brief statement to the Otago Daily Times.
‘‘The ministry is satisfied that the building was a good temporary solution, given it was always recognised that it was temporary while we explored options for a permanent solution.’’
Oamaru court services returned to the historic 1883 Thames St courthouse last week, after the building was closed in 2011 when it was classed as earthquakeprone.
Court services were initially relocated to Timaru, then the nearby Oamaru Opera House, and eventually to the portable facility in Humber St in 2014.
After an initial ministry estimate of $6 million to reopen the 136yearold courthouse, the Waitaki District Council bought the building — agreeing to lease it back to the ministry — and invested roughly $900,000 in a project to earthquakestrengthen and refurbish it and its surroundings last year.
The work was completed in October. The official opening on October 4 was attended by Justice Minister Andrew Little.
Dean & Associates solicitor Emma Middlemass, who began practising in Oamaru in 2012 after the Thames St courthouse closed, last week called the temporary courthouse ‘‘hopelessly inadequate’’.
‘‘It is small, stuffy, safety concerns exist, the waiting rooms are poor and the cheap ambience created by it is, in my view, not appropriate for the serious matter of dispensation of justice within the community.’’
She said a return to the historic courthouse meant that court services could be provided in a ‘‘suitable and functional environment’’.