Brian Rudman: Court move shatters heritage-friendly image

So much for the Auckland City Council's new love affair with heritage.

On Monday, John Duthie, manager of city planning, ended the fairytale with a jolt by applying to the Environment Court for a declaration that the disputed demolition permit for the Jean Batten State Building at 80 Queen St was valid.

Mr Duthie's move came exactly a month to the day after the city's environment and heritage committee voted for a freeze of "at least a month" in the execution of "all resource consent applications, demolition consent applications, public plan changes and heritage order proceedings" involving this art deco treasure.

The March 4 freeze was ordered to enable council officials, the urban design panel and Bank of New Zealand, the planned wreckers of the building, to review the site and BNZ's plans and, hopefully, come up with a less destructive scheme.

A week later, the full council added to the earlier heritage-friendly resolution by creating a special hearings panel to consider the new proposals.

With the month up, though, there's no sign of them. Officials advise they're only half way through the review process. But that hasn't stopped Mr Duthie's application.

At best, his move can be seen as jumping the gun. At worst, by declaring to the court a belief that the demolition permit is valid, Auckland City is, if not openly endorsing the wreckers, publicly signalling a belief that the fight is up.

True, campaigners for the Jean Batten building have been calling on Auckland City to have the validity of the permit tested in court for months. But no one expected the council to charge in and endorse the BNZ case that the permit was valid.

A neutral stance would have been more appropriate, given that the city itself had received divided legal advice on the issue.

The debate centres on whether the non-notified demolition resource consent granted to the BNZ on December 2, 2002 has expired.

Under the provisions of the Resource Management Act applying when it was granted, it died, from lack of use, on December 2 last year.

But the BNZ - and Mr Duthie - argue that a 2003 amendment to the act extended the permit's life until December 2007.

Campaigners contrast this pro-BNZ line with the council's foot-dragging when it comes to adding the threatened building to the city's list of scheduled heritage buildings.

Until the recent furore, the building was considered by council's heritage staff as too lowly to be protected. Forced to revisit it in the light of new information from Jean Batten fans, the heritage staff have regraded it, giving it the right of entry to a category B listing.

Under the requirements of the district plan and the heritage protection legislation, the council should, by rights, have begun the appropriate procedures to elevate Jean Batten to the B honours board.

But instead, under the freeze deal with the BNZ announced last month, "council will suspend consideration of heritage protection of Jean Batten State Building while the urban design panel considers the site".

The worry is that while there is a freeze on granting the building the protection the council's heritage staff now admits it merits, the council is pushing forward with moves which could gain judicial support for knocking the place down.

That could mean that if the present peace-talks with the BNZ fall over, the wreckers would be doubly advantaged: they would have the green light to begin the wrecking, and there would be no heritage protection in place to delay them.

This is why Mr Duthie's endorsement seems so out of kilter - and why the issue of the old demolition permit is so important.

If it were to be found invalid, BNZ would not get away with the non-notified permission it got in 2002.

I support the application for a judicial decision on the permit so we can get some certainty on the issue, but I baulk at the city's ill-judged backing for the BNZ's case.

To level the playing field, and restore some credibility to their claims to take heritage seriously, councillors need to ensure the B scheduling for the Jean Batten building gets under way - and fast.