'Major storage problem'

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, who was a councillor but not mayor at the time, said in October 2012 councillors were only told there was a "slight issue". Photo / Duncan Brown

Documents reveal council knew of MTG storage issue more than 16 months ago.

Napier city councillors were told more than 16 months ago there would be a "major storage problem" at the city's new MTG facility.

Previously secret documents, released by the council yesterday under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, reveal councillors were alerted to the storage issue by the then chief executive, Neil Taylor, during a public-excluded meeting on October 30, 2012.

The council launched an independent review last month to get to the bottom of a lack of storage at the region's flagship museum and art gallery.

The facility, previously the Hawke's Bay Museum & Art Gallery, was re-opened late last year as MTG Hawke's Bay after an $18 million revamp.

Chief executive Wayne Jack, who joined the council in September last year - just before the MTG opening - took action after discovering it appeared only 40 per cent of the $45 million, 100,000 piece Hawke's Bay Museums Trust collection would be able to fit in the new facility.

The initial intention, as stated in a 2009 fundraising booklet for the upgrade, had been for a facility capable of storing the entire collection "with room left for further growth".

The minutes of the October 2012 meeting stated: "The Chief Executive advised that it had recently become apparent that there would be a major storage problem when the collection was moved back to the redeveloped HB Museum & Art Gallery. This was the result of the ceiling height in the basement being lower than originally anticipated (which had reduced storage capacity) and the swell factor from the collection packing."

The issue was raised again at a subsequent closed-door council meeting on February 20 last year where Mr Taylor produced a two-page report in which he said "a number of issues are causing concern about the storage facilities and capacity for the collection".

That report, also released by the council yesterday, said the problem had been aggravated by service piping and sprinklers in the basement taking up more room that had been allowed for in the facility's original design.

It said the problem was daunting but not insurmountable "and there may be several levels of change that we can make that will mitigate the scale of the space shortage". There were "no financial implications that will impact the redevelopment budget," it said.

Other documents released by the council reveal contractor Opus wrote to Mr Taylor in June 2012 to say that while it had first thought the entire collection would fit into the new facility, that was no longer the case for a number of reasons, including that the collection had grown since the MTG project had begun in 2006.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, who was a councillor but not mayor at the time, said in October 2012 councillors were only told there was a "slight issue" with the pipe work protruding into the storage area.

"I had absolutely no idea of the potential size of the problem until just a couple of weeks ago when the current chief executive advised both Lawrence [Yule, Hastings Mayor] and I."

Asked about the four-month delay between the letter from Opus and Mr Taylor bringing the issue to council, Mr Dalton said that was a question that would need to be addressed by Mr Taylor.

Mr Jack said that the aim of the independent review was to find "an appropriate solution that looks after the collection".

He had spoken to Mr Taylor who he said was unable to provide any details further to what was in the council documents.

"Why were those decisions not taken? I don't know."

Mr Dalton said the council had now measured the storage area in the MTG and compared it to the space available before the refurbishment.

"When I look at it on paper and see that there is a significant increase in the storage capacity compared with what was there prior to the refurbishment, then I think there must be a way around this."