PM's minders move in

Photo / Doug Sherring

The days of police working from a camper van in Prime Minister John Key's driveway are numbered - but will they move to the pool house or inside his $7.2 million mansion?

Diplomatic Protection Squad members have been housed in the camper van in Key's Auckland driveway since he was elected in November.

They will soon move to a permanent space within Key's 2339sq m property, but are staying tight-lipped about exactly where that space will be.

DPS head Inspector Terry O'Neill said this week he was still working with Key to find an appropriate site at the Parnell property.

He said there were no plans to rent a nearby house, or to erect any new buildings on Key's property.

Key's office refused to discuss the arrangement.

"We don't comment at all on security," said press secretary Lesley Hamilton.

Plans for Key's property reveal a number of sites on the ground floor that may be suitable for the DPS, including a rumpus room, studies and a sitting room.

But these would have to be accessed either through the garage, or up the front steps, across the portico, through the vestibule and the grand hall, and down the corridor past the wine cellar.

So perhaps more likely is the 8x4m pool house on the property, separate from the main house.

Certainly, it is tempting to imagine the well-toned protection officers as cabana boys.

The officers would be able to keep fit doing lengths of the 10m swimming pool, or bashing a ball up and down the adjacent astrograss tennis court.

On cold evenings they could warm themselves in the spa.

It is not clear what renovation work would need to be done to the pool house to fit it out for the protection officers, as information usually available to the public about properties - including building consents -was not accessible for Key's address.

Auckland City Council building control processes manager Ian McCormick would not disclose what, if any, information about Key's property had been removed from public records.

Neither would he say who requested and authorised the removal of information, whether the council had received any new consent applications for the property in the past 12 months, or whether any new consent information would be available to the public.

O'Neill also refused to speculate on the final site.

"That is something for us to decide," he said.