Twizel Events Centre to stay open, despite concerns

The discovery of asbestos at the Twizel Events Centre has added to the Mackenzie District Council’s mounting list of serious safety issues to resolve at the 20-year-old community facility.

On Tuesday, a report detailing numerous safety concerns – including some described as ‘‘potential life safety hazards’’ – was discussed by staff and councillors at a council meeting.

They decided not to close the centre, which has never had a Code Compliance Certificate, just yet – but have been warned the council’s own building authority may shut it down if issues are not resolved swiftly.

The council is also scrambling to gain a further extension to a temporary Certificate of Public Use (CPU) allowing its use, in the hope the facility will be able to remain open when its current consent expires in January.

A report to the council on Tuesday contained damning evidence on the state of the building.

The report itemised dozens of issues, including a number that ‘‘need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency’’, and others identified as ‘‘potential life safety hazards’’.

The council’s Building Control Authority (BCA) issued the council with an urgent notice to fix after a routine inspection of the centre found a number of fire safety issues in January 2021.

The new report says problems at the centre include ‘‘discrepancies between what was constructed and what was documented to be constructed’’ as well as ‘‘significant deferred maintenance’’.

Among the issues revealed are numerous examples of noncompliance with the Building Act such as a lack of fire relays in switchboards, broken ventilation systems, improperly installed fire dampers, non-compliant supports and connections to beams under theatre seating, non-functioning emergency lighting, lack of seismic restraints, non-compliant fire safety equipment and locked fire exits.

The meeting also heard testing undertaken at the centre last week discovered the presence of asbestos.

Outgoing general manager of operations Tim Harty told the meeting that after conversations ‘‘on a number of occasions about the condition of buildings across the district,’’ the council was now doing ‘‘triage’’ on some of its buildings.

‘‘The Twizel Events Centre is sort of the number one cab off the rank in terms of moving forward to address,’’ Harty said.

Mackenzie mayor Graham Smith said he sees the project as high priority.

‘‘It’s been problematic for quite some time that building. We’ve tried to address it, but we absolutely do need to get a certificate of public use as quickly as possible.’’

Smith expressed concern the new theatre seating was installed despite such serious problems with the building.

In her report to the council, community services officer Angie Taylor said failure to secure a Code Compliance Certificate ‘‘will likely result in the building being required to be shut down’’.

The council agreed to accept all recommendations, including hiring a project manager and that Beca be directly awarded the role of providing technical support and design.

There was no suggestion of restricting use of the facility.