Illegal Christchurch building consents may predate quakes

Jordyn Eketone, 7, loves her beautiful smooth head and hates wearing wigs to hide it. The Government is desperately trying to find out how many illegal building consents were issued in the Christchurch City Council consenting debacle, but admits it’s ‘‘a big number’’.

Cabinet is expected to sign off the appointment of a Crown manager for the council today after a rollercoaster week, in which chief executive Tony Marryatt was placed on indefinite leave and Mayor Bob Parker withdrew from the mayoral race.

International Accreditation New Zealand (Ianz) revoked the council’s accreditation and the council is now unable to issue building consents.

Ianz said some consents issued by the council may be illegal.

Building and Construction Minister Maurice Williamson said yesterday the system was so bad the council could not tell the Government how many might be in breach.

‘‘We don’t have a ballpark because we don’t know how far back it goes, you see?’’ Mr Williamson told TVNZ’s Q+A.

‘‘So they’ve got to go back quite a distance. It might be that we go right back to the earthquakes. We might even have to go back [further].’’

It would be foolish of him to put a number on it but ‘‘we’re talking a big number’’.

Mr Williamson said the consenting problems pre-dated the quakes. But he insisted there was no way the Government could have seen the crisis coming, despite the huge step-up in demand on the council after the earthquake, and the likely log-jam of consents as tens of thousands of new homes started to be built.

‘‘When you look at the report that was . . . released in November publicly, it said there are 17, sort of, areas where the council needs to tidy up and tighten. It doesn’t mean that you’ll lose your accreditation. It just means there were issues.’’

Mr Williamson said ministry officials then got involved and tried to work with the council ‘‘but there was actually a culture of denial at the senior level’’.

Asked if heads should roll, he said they already had, with the departures of Mr Marryatt and Mr Parker.

But Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove said more should go at Government level.

He could not believe Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee was not told about Ianz’s ongoing concerns in relation to the council.

He also could not believe Mr Brownlee did not seek assurances early in the process.

‘‘Why didn’t Mr Brownlee attempt to know more? I would have thought this was on the agenda of his regular meetings with the council and weekly meeting with the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.’’ Tough talk: Christchurch mayor Bob Parker, left, Minister for Building and Construction, Maurice Williamson and Chris Tremain, minister of Local Government. Photo: Fairfax NZ