Future up in the air

The future of Levin's Red Cross hall and charity shop in Queen St is up in the air with as the doors closed on December 18 until a decision is made to demolish or earthquake strengthen.

Levin's Red Cross Hall has been a permanent fixture in the town for more than 50 years but with the premises deemed an earthquake risk by the Red Cross Society, its future is up in the air.

The doors to the hall and charity shop were 'permanently' locked on December 18 until discussions next year between the Levin Rd Cross branch and NZ Red Cross board.

Hall convener Heather Harvey said she was "gob-smacked" to get the call from head office about two weeks ago telling her they had to stop using the premises that day and get everyone out.

She said they knew the building was a high 'earthquake risk' after a desktop assessment put it at 15 per cent of New Building Standards and a notice went up to advise community groups and members that they were using the hall at their own risk. A full engineer's report in September confirmed the building was 20 per cent of NBS.

"I'm still shell-shocked by the news. We had been waiting to hear more from the Red Cross board but this felt like the Grinch had stolen our Christmas," Mrs Harvey said.

She managed to get a "stay of execution" to allow pre-booked Christmas functions in the hall to go ahead but on December 18 the doors were locked until further notice.

"This hall is used a lot and the community groups were horrified. We keep our rent as low as possible, $30 a day as our community service to Levin, and some groups said they can't afford to rent other places in town as well as find somewhere to store their materials."

Daphne Barrett, Horowhenua Embroiderers Guild committee member, said the group had been using the hall for at least 30 years on a weekly basis and it was a shock to its 28 members to hear of its sudden closure.

"The hall is close to town, it's just the right size room for us, the lighting is very good, there's storage cupboards for our books [about 150] and off-street parking. I really hope it gets fixed, it's just so convenient," she said.

The guild committee was currently looking at options.

The Red Cross Hall was funded and built by local Red Cross volunteers more than 50 years ago and rental from the hall, currently used by 12 different community groups, later paid for the running of the charity shop added onto the building 20 years ago.

Profits raised by the shop, $12,000 this year, all went to disaster relief projects.

Mrs Harvey said the building needs strengthening and that's what they should do.

"We have about $70,000 in the building fund and other options to look at, including selling a piece of property."

New Zealand Red Cross business services manager Bruce Jones said following the engineer's report putting the Queen St building in the earthquake prone category, it took a "prudent approach" to close it.

He said the future of the building lay in discussions between the Levin Red Cross Branch and board of the NZ Red Cross, about how they might want to use the hall in the future and the measures needed.

"There are definitely strengthening options possible," he said.

In the meantime, Mrs Harvey is hoping there is a vacant shop premises in Levin, "cheap to rent", where they can set up shop and start raising funds to get back on their feet again.

Mr Jones confirmed he was unaware of any issues with the rented building used by the Red Cross retail shop on Oxford St.