New permanent Napier home for IRD on Hastings St

IRD's new Napier home is at 202 Hastings St. Photo / Paul Taylor

The Inland Revenue will return to face the Napier public when it moves into a new permanent home in the city - just in time for Halloween.

About nine months after IRD vacated two floors in the city's public library building because of the building's sub-standard earthquake risk assessment, a department spokesman said the search for a new location had ended.

IRD evacuated 78 staff from the Napier Library building in June, after a Napier City Council assessment found the building to be "earthquake-prone".

A department spokesman said Inland Revenue had now signed a nine-year lease for the first and second floors of 202 Hastings St, Napier.

"Our plan is to fit out the premises over the coming months. We're looking forward to bringing our staff back into the one location at the end of October."

Changes to the Building Act last year defined an earthquake-prone building as one that is less than 34 per cent of the strength required of a new building - the NCC assessment found Napier Library to be at just 15 per cent as its lowest point.

The 78 IRD staff had worked from home until November, when they moved into two temporary offices in Bower St, and Tennyson St.

At present, the public are advised the best way to contact IRD from Napier is through the IRD customer service call centre.

Meanwhile NCC's Love Your Library campaign, designed to consult the public on future options for a library, has just one month left to run.

At present, Napier City Council provides library services from two locations: a temporary city library within MTG Hawke's Bay, and a branch library in Taradale.

The campaign recently concluded a series of "pop up" sessions across the city to garner ideas from the public but people can still obtain a feedback form online or from any Napier or Taradale library.

"The library building on Station St is still on the table," council chief executive Wayne Jack said.

"All of the council administrative services, including the library, can fit into that building if it's renovated appropriately, and is affordable. So that's still an option, as well as a number of other sites around the CBD that we're investigating too."