City’s blots on the landscape
Rundown, overgrown and ‘‘rat-infested’’ properties around Christchurch are frustrating neighbouring residents, but the city council says it is taking action. NICOLEMATHEWSONreports.
Christchurch’s eyesores are attracting unwanted attention.
Readers of The Press have queried the future of several seemingly abandoned properties around Christchurch after publicity over the state of the former Hotel All Seasons on Papanui Rd.
The hotel closed after the February 2011 earthquake but became a hang-out for prostitutes and squatters and a target for vandals.
Council acting inspections and enforcement manager Clive Morris said staff visited the property last month and confirmed that the overgrown vegetation was being removed.
Christopher Stent questioned why the council’s powers were ‘‘so weak’’ they could not require owners to keep their land and buildings safe for neighbours and the wider community.
He was particularly concerned about 84 Brockworth Pl, Riccarton, which was ‘‘run down and very poorly maintained’’.
Council inspections and enforcement manager Anne Columbus said four complaints had been received about the property since February 2011.
Inspections were carried out in July 2014 and February 2015 and although there was a lot of overgrown vegetation, it was not considered to be a fire hazard.
Owner Kevin Serra said he bought the property about 17 years ago but it ‘‘became sort of uninhabitable’’ before the quakes.
He was trying to sell it and had received one confirmed offer.
Sharon Hann queried the state of 26 Circuit St, Merivale, describing it as an ‘‘overgrown, rat-infested hovel that has been uninhabited for years’’.
Columbus said the council received a complaint in January 2015 about long grass posing a potential fire hazard. An enforcement officer visited the property and issued a fire hazard notice to the owner.
‘‘There have been subsequent telephone conversations with the owner and this property is in the process of being tidied up.’’
A woman who answered owner Helen Thacker’s cellphone said Thacker declined to comment on the matter.
Lyttelton resident Paul St John questioned the future of the Mitre Hotel and British Hotel. Both were on Lyttelton’s Norwich Quay and had been fenced off since the February 2011 earthquake.
St John said the fences around both buildings obstructed the footpath and the fence around the Mitre Hotel protruded on to the road, making it ‘‘difficult and dangerous’’ for motorists to negotiate the corner.
Columbus said both hotels were issued with section 45 notices by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) and the British Hotel remained subject to the notice.
The Mitre Hotel’s notice was lifted in December and responsibility for the property went back to the building’s owner.
A Cera spokesman said the position of the fencing was based on engineering assessments of the potential fall zones and risk to the public but it was the responsibility of the owners to provide adequate protection to the public.
British Hotel owner Madeleine Cassels said she and her partner were working with Cera to address the fencing issue and planned to repair the hotel eventually.
‘‘We are really excited about the future of the building. We think it’s held up really well after the earthquakes,’’ she said.
Mitre Hotel owner Tony Ward wrote on Facebook last month that the council was ‘‘sending debt collectors after me for $10,500 of rates’’.
He told The Press ‘‘protracted negotiations’’ with his insurance company over hotel damage had prevented him taking action.
A caretaker lived on site to monitor security. The building was secure and the barricaded footpath was routinely cleared of weeds rubbish and graffiti, Ward said. Another Christchurch resident raised concerns about 318 Madras St which had been under construction before Canterbury’s earthquakes.
Foundations and reinforcing rods had been installed but the site was effectively abandoned after the quakes.
The concerned resident said someone could fall and impale themselves on the rods, which were covered by vegetation.
Columbus said a complaint was received about the property in November 2014 and council staff visited the site to repair the old wire fence and attach danger tape.
The council planned to revisit the site and carry out similar remedial work. Letters had been sent to the property owner and staff were trying to contact them by phone to ‘‘understand [their] intentions for managing this property’’.
Also in central Christchurch, a motel owner on Colombo St expressed concerns about a ‘‘lovely old mansion’’ at number 854 that was demolished after the earthquakes.
The site had never been cleaned up. It was infested with rats, posed a fire hazard and was an ‘‘eyesore’’, she said.
‘‘All our guests ask about it all the time. Everyone else has had to clean up properties but this owner certainly has not.’’
Council acting inspections and enforcement manager Tracey Weston said the council had received five complaints about the state of the property since 2012, including one last month.
Council staff were trying to contact the property’s owner regarding the latest complaint ‘‘with a view to seeking appropriate action to clean up the site’’.