Editorial: Phantom of opera house

Hawke's Bay Opera House. Photo / Glenn Taylor

Hastings District Council's rationalisation of its shut-up opera house was a well-iced slice of rhetoric.

An independent report released this week stated no one - bar the Christchurch earthquake - was to blame for the Hawke's Bay Opera House bungle, which saw the 99-year-old theatre close its doors in March due to shonky earthquake standards. This is despite a glittering upgrade only a few years earlier.

Council underscored yesterday its minimal culpability, given the refurbishment was completed at the then best practice.

Thing is, across town, Queen Street's historic IMS building recently received a 100 per cent pass under the Government's new building standards (NBS) seismic rating.

Hence, it's a tad hard to swallow that the publicly funded opera house overhaul, completed in 2007, was done to a standard inferior to the IMS building's construction in 1929.

In the course of 80-odd years, someone has razed the standard.

Here's the line from the report writer that truly stung: "negligence is considered to be minor ... ".

Pardon?

This is a failed $13.6 million upgrade that will see the theatre empty for two years. It caused a company to cease trading, pushed numerous events from Hastings, cost 15 jobs, forced the relocation of the city's flagship furnishings business and will continue to sting the ratepayer millions more in subsequent strengthening. This is seismic negligence.

It's one thing to squander a king-sized wad of public cash, it's another to fork out more on a report recommending a hearty rendition of kumbaya.

Factoring the derelict Albert Hotel, Heretaunga St east boasts two notable buildings, both listed under the New Zealand Historic Places Trust - both unsafe for human habitation.

This is bleak.

The offender? Unknown. Cause? Unexplained. A mysterious culprit - the phantom of the opera house.

Quite apt, given this stunning theatre is poised to celebrate its centenary with its ghosts.