Engineers confirm cracked clock tower is sound

The Hastings Clock Tower, Hastings CBD, which is showing cracks. 18 July 2017 Hawke's Bay Today Photograph by Duncan Brown.

Time will not stand still in Hastings' city centre, with engineers confirming yesterday that cracks in the historic Hastings Clock Tower are superficial, affecting only the surface plaster.

The cracks were spotted in the 82-year-old structure this week, and engineers were called in to check that the damage to the Historic Places Trust Category 1 building was not more serious.

A Hastings District Council spokesperson said that no structural defects were identified when the building was checked for earthquake proneness last year, and it was found to meet 42 per cent of the current building standard.

Yesterday's inspection confirmed nothing more sinister was going on and a plan to refurbish the tower, including strengthening, replastering and painting would go ahead as planned.

The design for that work had been completed and tenders would be called for in the next two months.

According to Heritage New Zealand, the tower was completed in 1935 to restore a working clock chime to Hastings' city centre, designed by local architect Sydney Chaplin after he won a national design competition, and costing £1226 to build.

Two plaques on the structure list the 93 Hastings residents who died as a result of the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.

The clock tower was considered an excellent example of design from the mid-1930s that predominated in the surrounding parts of the city's central business district, while retaining a distinction and individuality of its own.

"The clock, with its four faces, gives the structure a civic usefulness, and the chiming bells add a melodious aspect to its familiarity in the city."