Cold shoulder for cool community hall

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Potential users have turned their backs on an award-winning new community centre because they find it impersonal and hard to heat.

The $3.6 million New Lynn Community Centre, which opened in June last year, has received two national awards from the Institute of Architects.

But any pride the Waitakere City Council felt has been deflated after seven groups decided to stop using the two-storey centre in favour of meeting in old halls and a lounge in the New Lynn Returned Services Association.

The main complaints were from older people citing design issues such as the building's impersonal nature, with its high ceiling and large empty spaces, small kitchen and lack of heating.

A report to the council by its acting leisure services manager, Suresh Nagaiya, lists the issues:

* Swing doors in the disability lift were hard to use.

* The upstairs kitchen was cramped and did not have a dishwasher.

* Doors in the building were heavy and hard to open because of fire regulations.

* Poor acoustics in the main hall for speechmaking and events with small groups.

* Electronic taps, installed for hygiene and water saving, were confusing to operate, and users were shaking them and damaging them.

* The heating in the main hall and upstairs meeting room had performed poorly.

* Construction defects caused roof leaks and the timber floor was lifting.

The report also says there was a high level of theft, vandalism and graffiti inside the centre.

Mr Nagaiya said complaints had decreased since measures were taken to address a number of management, design and security issues.

More than 50 groups used the hall regularly, ranging from youth groups and Probus club meetings to language classes and yoga.

But the measures are unlikely to woo back defectors.

The secretary of the New Lynn Country Women's Institute, Joan Shepherd, told the Herald that the "inconvenient building" was unsuitable for the group of 30.

"We found our ladies could not cope with the upstairs meeting room, the noise from bands going on downstairs and trains hooting on the railway line next door.

"We had doors broken off our locker in frequent break-ins at the centre. Our ladies clung on to their handbags."

Stroke Victims Club coordinator Gwen Pauling said: "It was not at all cosy with the high ceiling and when one person was talking you could not hear anyone else."

Awards for the building went to the Architectus group of Auckland.

Project architect Malcolm Bowes said he was not in a position to comment on the issues raised, though he was aware of them.

"They have been dealt with as they came up," he said.

"I don't think they are any more significant than what you would expect in any similar project."

Rob Murphy, construction director for the centre's builder, Watts Hughes Construction, said he was surprised that people were having difficulty using the building.

He said any leaks in the roof were minor and the company pledged to to fix any problems in the building.

The flooring contractor was making repairs in the hall.

In the council's annual report last year, Mayor Bob Harvey said the centre "raised the standard in environmental efficiency, protection and building design and is now a strategic part in the revitalisation and strengthening of New Lynn's local communities and retailers".

In the same report, council chief executive Harry O'Rourke called the centre "a showpiece of modern, sustainable thinking".

The centre has been in demand for conferences. It was the venue for the government development forum where one of the key themes was "challenges for families and communities".