Chch council staff defend quake paperwork delays

Colombo Street in Christchurch after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which struck the city in February last year. Photo / Simon Baker

Under-fire Christchurch council staff have rejected claims their policies delayed the demolition of a Colombo St building that collapsed on February 22, killing 12 people.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry has been hearing evidence into the collapse of a block of buildings known as the Austral buildings, on Colombo St, when the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck almost a year ago.

The facade of 603 Colombo St collapsed, killing Joan Weild, 76, and her husband Graham Weild, 77, and Israeli backpackers Ofer Levy, 22, and Gabi Moshe Ingel, 22, while 605-613 Colombo fell onto a Red Bus, killing bus driver Andrew Craig, 46, and passengers Jayden Andrews-Howland, 14, Jeff Sanft, 32, Philip Coppeard, 41, Joseph Routledge, 74, Lucy Routledge, 74, Earl Stick, 78, and his wife Beverley Stick, 71.

Council staff were criticised for their policy which meant heritage buildings had to have a notified resource consent before they could be demolished.

The owners of the red-stickered Austral building said they were told by city council staff at a meeting on February 1 that the process of getting a resource consent for the building's demolition may take up to six months.

City council planner Sean Ward defended the policy, saying the six-month delay was only an "estimate''.

"I did advise at the meeting that it may take up to six months to obtain a resource consent for demolition. This was an estimate only and would depend on whether the application was to be notified. I advised in general terms that notification was a strong possibility based on my experience with similar applications.''

Engineer Marton Sinclair, who had inspected the building, told the commission he had been very concerned about the length of time the resource consent process would take.

"We had buildings that were obviously seriously dangerous. I was aware of the council's policy about Heritage Buildings and that time was of the essence. I was concerned we weren't going to get adequate progress.''

Of particular concern, was the building's "dangerous'' facade.

"I do not think the risk posed by the facade was fully appreciated by Civil Defence when balancing a number of conflicting requirements...The whole of Colombo St should have, in my opinion, been closed off until the buildings could be made safe or demolished.''

However, Mr Ward said Mr Sinclair had never raised his concerns about Colombo St at the meeting on February 1.

"I have no recollection of Mr Sinclair discussing safety concerns in relation to the Austral building... I don't remember it being discussed that the Austral building posed a risk to Colombo St. I'm confident I would recall that.''

He also said no demolition application was submitted by the building's owners.

Mr Sinclair also heavily criticised the official process of dealing with buildings following the September earthquake.

"In my opinion, after the September earthquake the whole process of dealing with dangerous buildings had become far too complex and time consuming. This was as a result of the Christchurch city council decision on notification of resource consent. This decision effectively prevented urgent decision-making and action on dangerous buildings.''

"It has become apparent to me that in emergency situations, such as we have faced, decision making must be simple and efficient, as far as is possible. Complex planning and approval processes impede the recovery after an event.''

There had been discussions between city council and the Ministry of Environment about the possibility of having Orders in Council which would relax resource consents requirements _ but the regulatory and planning committee advised there was no need for the orders.

Mr Higgins said he had personally thought the demolition process had needed streamlining.

"We were at the coalface and we were aware of property owners and that was certainly the impression that we were getting from them_ that it was time-consuming and complex...There were a number of situations where the outcome was fairly obvious but we had to go through the three to six-month process. We were aware of that.''

However, he also said the council had been "doing a number of things to make the process as simple and efficient as it could be in the circumstances.''

"I consider that the council was being very pragmatic by offering business owners assistance and actively facilitating the stabilisation of heritage buildings in order to make them safe.''

The commission of inquiry will resume later this month.