Demolition work has started at the Bella Vista subdivision in the Lakes. Photo / Andrew Warner
Demolition work has started at the Bella Vista subdivision in the Lakes. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tauranga City Council has hit back at accusations it is demolishing some of the Bella Vista houses unnecessarily or to destroy evidence.
In a meeting this morning councillors received a report that "unequivocally rejected" the claims regarding the 21 houses in the failed development at The Lakes.
According to the report, authored by the council's legal and risk manager Nick Swallow and authorised by chief executive Marty Grenfell, the accusations have been levelled on social media and directly to the council.
A table summarising the defects found in each house and how each could be remediated has been presented by critics as evidence the houses should not have been issued dangerous building notices, and therefore should not be demolished.
Swallow said the summary table by engineering consultants BCD, dated May 18, was about structural engineering defects only.
"As such it does not cover geotechnical issues identified in other reports."
He said geotechnical issues with ground conditions and the unretained slope between the 5 Aneta Way houses and 16 Lakes Boulevard houses were key in the council's decision to evacuate the buildings, and to later issue them with dangerous and affected building notices.
The council relied on 46 reports relating to individual and groups of houses in making its notice decision, he said. The reports would be loaded to the council's website.
Swallow also rejected accusations the council had destroyed evidence or independent testing of the houses.
The council has brought more than 50 charges alleging Building Act breaches against parties connected to the development.
He said the council had given "ample opportunity" for defendants to inspect the properties before demolition began.
Remediation plans for the Bella Vista properties.
Defendants could bring in their own expert witnesses in and undertake invasive testing.
He said an inspection protocol had been agreed by the majority of defendants. Bruce Cameron did not sign.
The protocol was about health and safety on an active demolition site, Swallow said.
Swallow said former Bella Vista director Danny Cancian, a defendant in the court case, had applied to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to challenge the notice issued to 311 Lakes Boulevard.
The council would oppose that application, Swallow said, and the ministry's experts could inspect 311 or any of the properties.
He did not agree the council was required to halt demolition work while the matter was being considered by the ministry, and said the council did not want to delay remediations, given risks relating to the unretained slope.
The councillors discussed releasing more information about their decision - made behind closed doors on December 20 - to remediate the homes, including partially demolishments.
Councillor John Robson said his recollection was that there were no detailed estimates of the remediation costs for each property.
"We made the decision we would not spend significant money getting detailed remediation costs for each property because that would have been a waste of ratepayer money."
Councillor Steve Morris compared the accusations the council had been fielding to conspiracy theories including that the moon landing was fake and Earth was flat.
He did not want the council's staff to spend too much time refuting the claims.
