Rotorua Museum update to be revealed to councillors

The future of earthquake-damaged Rotorua Museum will be discussed tomorrow behind closed doors, but the latest update is not expected to be made public until at least Friday.

Rotorua Lakes Council will meet tomorrow from 9.30am in the Council Chamber and will receive a confidential update on progress regarding a full seismic assessment of the building in which new cracks appeared after the Kaikoura earthquake.

The cracks appeared in the older part of the building, built in 1908, with the council closing the entire building as a precaution.

Asked by the Rotorua Daily Post if the museum would reopen at all and if an update, due today, was yet available, council chief executive Geoff Williams said it was more likely an update would be produced on Friday.

"Due to its age, construction and heritage status, the museum is already a complex building and the new damage has added to that so the process we're undergoing is going to take time.

"While we had initially thought we would be in a position to provide an update [Wednesday] that is now likely to be Friday and we will advise you when we can confirm that," he said.

However, tomorrow's update for councillors will be held during a confidential session of the council meeting.

The reason given in the council agenda was to "protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons", as per sections 48(1)(a) and 7(2)(a) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.