Lawrence Yule: Safety is the first priority

Lawrence Yule

The two-storey brick walls of the opera house auditorium and the Municipal Building's main entrance walls are structurally weak and are highly likely to collapse in a sizeable earthquake, threatening the lives of anyone in the buildings or on the street outside.

This is what was behind council's decision last year to close the building until strengthening options could be considered.

I am aware, however, there are a small number of people in the community who think the council decision to close the opera house was made prematurely and believe it will cost too much to fix, and that we should all take the risk and use it as it is.

There are several problems with those beliefs: Firstly, the decision to close was made after three independent engineering reports said the walls, which are not reinforced, posed a serious risk.

Those reports were peer reviewed and confirmed the original findings, and since then have done work on potential strengthening options.

Analysis relied on New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering standards as well as engineering principles, international best practice, and the Building Act.

Advice from two different law firms confirmed that council, as the owner of the buildings and as a unit responsible for building safety, was obliged to address the risks.

The second belief - that we should stick up a sign saying "enter at your own risk" and carry on as usual, is not something we, as councillors, can live with. It is all very well for an economist to say the cost of strengthening does not stack up against the risk, but does he seriously think we can allow the theatre to be used by 900 people with our knowledge of the structural weaknesses?

It would be like your garage passing a Warrant of Fitness for your car while knowing you have a wheel nut loose.

The nay-sayers are likely to decry this argument as overly emotional. They say the chances of being killed in an earthquake are next to zero - however that is based on the belief that there are only people in the Opera House during performances, so the chances of there being an earthquake at the same time as a performance are low.

Council's starting point asks what is the likely outcome if the Opera House is being used and a moderate or stronger earthquake occurs.

The answer is not pretty.

The brick side walls in the Opera House are not reinforced - shaken hard enough they will fall down on top of the audience.

That could be our grandparents, nieces and nephews, children, or our friends. That is not a risk we are prepared to take.

It is true that it is almost impossible to judge how much of a shake it will take for any building to fall down but if there are people in the Opera House, or close to the outside of it, their lives will be in danger.

If council thought there was any other responsible way to deal with this, we would take it.

There are plenty of buildings around New Zealand that are closed because the owners are not prepared to gamble with public safety.

HDC is no different when it considers its largest and most significant public asset.

Equally, as President of Local Government New Zealand, I am fully aware of where the new legislation and regulations are going.

The minister is clear that he wants to follow the Royal Commission findings. This is very much aligned to the HDC approach.

There are options for the Opera House, but not many of them. The two main ones are level it or strengthen it.

Those who believe it will cost too much to fix will get their say when the options for the Opera House, the Municipal Buildings and Civic Square are out for public input in February.

The independent working party has done fantastic work in looking at this redevelopment as an opportunity rather than a cost. We expect to release these exciting options in mid-December.

Lawrence Yule is Mayor of Hastings.