Quake plan - but who will pay

Wanganui District Council has begun the process of deciding what to do about the city's large stock of earthquake-prone buildings, which could cost the district up to $100 million to fix.

At a full council meeting yesterday, councillors voted unanimously to carry out detailed engineering analyses on council-owned, earthquake-prone buildings, and to develop a public awareness and education programme around the issue of earthquake-prone buildings.

They also agreed to establish an earthquake-prone building task force, subject to the task force's terms of reference, membership and budget being agreed.

The council owns 17 buildings that have less than 33 per cent of the earthquake strengthening required under the Building Act 2004, but the total number of earthquake-prone buildings in Wanganui is unknown. All buildings fall into one of three categories: A, B or C.

Owners of buildings built before the current building code was put in place are required to carry out an initial evaluation procedure (IEP), which gives a rough indication of the earthquake strengthening of a building.

This goes into a national database and the next step is to carry out a detailed analysis of the building, which gives a more in-depth picture of the strength of a building. All Category A and B buildings have received IEPs, and Category C IEPs are due to be finished in December 2012.

Councillors yesterday expressed concern at the effect the cost of carrying out IEPs and detailed analyses would have on local businesses.

Councillor Michael Laws said this would be more devastating to building owners than any earthquake.

"A lot of private building owners will struggle to pay for this in the current economic climate." he said.

Mr Laws said separating public buildings from private ones made no sense, as it would make no difference to the population during an earthquake.

Councillor Allan Anderson asked whether council and local building owners could collaborate on getting IEPs and detailed analyses done but infrastructure manager Julian Reweti scotched that idea.

"It couldn't really be done. No two buildings are the same, so they have to be carried out individually," Mr Reweti said.

Chief executive Kevin Ross said the proposed task force would consist of local people with expertise, and would provide "practical, hands-on solutions" to the issue of earthquake prone buildings, while the council would continue to deal with governance issues.

As well as council representation, the task force would include experts on heritage, architecture, and business and economics.

Mr Laws said he would not support any task force without having seen the terms of reference, the proposed membership or a budget.

Mayor Annette Main said those details could be brought back to the council for approval.

Councillors passed the recommendations unanimously.