Building inspector heads to Christchurch

Rotorua building inspector Glenn Marjoribanks is heading to Christchurch today to help assess damage done to homes and small shops.
The Rotorua District Council building officer will spend at least three days there after an urgent request from Canterbury Civil Defence for 60 qualified building inspectors to assess homes and small shops.
Mr Marjoribanks said he was excited about going to Christchurch. He lived in Kawerau at the time of the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake, and lives in Rotoma close to Lake Rotoehu where there was an earthquake in 2004.
Council acting chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston said that while the council's building team were down on numbers the needs of Canterbury people were much greater than Rotorua at this time.
Mr Gaston said he was sure people would understand that providing this assistance could slow inspection processing times down in Rotorua for a short period and asked for people to be patient.
The council would pay Mr Marjoribanks' wages while in Christchurch, while travel would be covered by the National Crisis Management Centre and accommodation and meals provided by Canterbury Civil Defence.
Mr Gaston said the council would consider any other requests for help when and if they came in.
"These would be assessed against the needs of maintaining Rotorua's own infrastructure and services, and the council's available manpower."
Rotorua builders may welcome the extra work in Christchurch after its devastating earthquake but it was too early to say whether anyone would go down.
Rotorua Master Builders president Bill Clement said it was too unsafe to go down at the moment with the continuing aftershocks.
"Perhaps later on, once things settle down and they get processes in place it will be an opportune time to go."
He said some builders in Rotorua may welcome work in Christchurch as work in Rotorua had been "pretty patchy".
Mr Clement said he was to ask if there was anyone keen to go to Christchurch at its monthly meeting of Rotorua Master Builders next week.
Rotorua Master Plumbers former chairman Graeme Edwards said it was too early to say if any Rotorua plumbers would be going to Canterbury.
Mr Edwards said Canterbury was likely to have enough plumbers to do repairs but more could be needed when the reconstruction started.
"I would think it will be a good month before they know where they are at. I know it's good idea for some to go down but not yet."
Chairman of the group, John Lewis, urged any plumber who had thought about going to Canterbury to contact the Canterbury Master Plumbers beforehand.
Mr Lewis said Master Plumbers and Drainlayers New Zealand had made an offer of tradespeople to Christchurch City Council and Canterbury Civil Defence but no one was needed at this stage.
Meanwhile, Rotorua's Living Well Church is to donate $1000 to the Salvation Army to help buy food for those in Christchurch. The church's senior pastor, Andrew Parrington, said several families in the church had children studying in Christchurch and the church prayed for them on Sunday, as well as the rest of the residents in the city.
"Our hearts go out to them."
Pastor Andrew said he was "totally blown away" by the severity of the devastation.
He said he was living in Whakatane during the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987 and remembered the trauma of all the aftershocks.