Whanganui District Council offices need strengthening but new build not on cards - yet

Andrew Tripe said he didn't expect a new build or relocation to happen within the next 10 years. Photo / Bevan Conley

Whanganui District Council’s main office has “significant structural limitations” and a consultant could be employed to find a long-term solution.

That’s according to a report from council delivery manager Tania Henare, which said there was no ability to adapt the space to meet current and future demands.

The building, constructed in 1968 at 101 Guyton St, also didn’t have enough room to accommodate the entire council workforce.

“In addition, seismic issues on the third floor will need to be remediated if we decide to invest in the current location for the long term.”

Henare has recommended employing a consultant to present various options for the future and possible financial returns on the building if the council moved out.

The Guyton St property, along with adjacent buildings and land, currently has a total QV capital valuation of $7.4 million and a total area of just over 7000sq m.

Henare’s case said the building had not been altered significantly externally but single-storeyed additions were made at the Cook’s Garden end.

Windows were non-compliant and emergency exits were compromised due to the layout and number of staff based on each floor.

Last year, the council voted against providing $100,000 in debt funding to fast-track the long-running stained glass window project ‘The Whanganui Story’ in the council chambers.

Henare estimated a feasibility study on the future of the building could also cost $100,000.

If signed off by the council as part of its long-term plan (LTP) 2024-2034, the consultant will be employed in the 2024/25 financial year.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said the building was currently adequate but parts of it weren’t fit for purpose, such as the air conditioning system.

However, he didn’t expect a new build or relocation to happen within the next 10 years.

“If you look around the country, a lot of councils have invested in new buildings because they’ve become tired and old and beyond their use-by date,” Tripe said.

“One option is to [earthquake-]strengthen our building, another is to repurpose it, or build on a brand new site.

“We’re still a long way out but the reality is, at some stage, we’ll have to do something.”

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Trip outside the main council building. Photo / Bevan Conley

Rangitikei District Council has allocated $19 million in its LTP for new offices - to replace its current building which is earthquake-prone and leaking.

Any new corporate building came with “significant investment”, Henare’s case said.

Maintaining the status quo would mean the council team continued to be dispersed and operating in unfit current or future work environments and the “colonial nature of the chambers” would also remain.

“Whanganui District Council, along with all local government, is going through a time of transformation and as a result, the role they play within their local communities is also changing.

“Our democratic processes are expected to be more community-friendly, now more than ever, and the space [where] we house our workforce and chamber should be more inviting and welcoming.”

A specialist security consultant trained Whanganui District Council front counter staff last October after they raised concerns over risks to personal safety.

At the time, council chief executive David Langford said longer-term action would focus on how to reconfigure and redesign some of that space, with the potential for putting additional barriers of security in so there wasn’t “free access for members of the public from the reception area into the back office spaces”.

Tripe said a municipal building should always be present in Whanganui, regardless of whether there were council amalgamations in the future.

A final report from the Review into the Future for Local Government, released last June, recommended a unitary model - one council for a region - or a combined network model.

That would retain local councils and mayors but have an additional combined council to carry out “functions that affect the whole region or require specialist capability”.

“There is no doubt the building is showing its age,” Tripe said.

“When customers come in they see a new service centre that’s been refurbished and looks great but aspects of the rest of the building [are] quite old and also not really conducive to modern workplaces.

“There are a lot of poky offices and that kind of thing.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.