Whanganui District Council heritage adviser Scott Flutey. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui District Council heritage adviser Scott Flutey. Photo / Bevan Conley
For the first time ever, the community can nominate places of heritage significance for consideration by the Whanganui District Council.
If successful, they will be included in the council’s heritage inventory which lists buildings, sites and structures.
Whanganui District Council’s heritage adviser Scott Flutey said during his time at the council, a lot of people had been in contact with him about places they valued.
He is approaching three years in the role.
“One mechanism is getting a property scheduled on the district plan,” Flutey said.
By scheduling a site - granting it heritage status - the council ensures its protection and correct management, which it is required to do under the Resource Management Act.
Flutey said while other councils had asked for community feedback on sites in the past, with Auckland doing it fairly often, it was a first for Whanganui.
“We are trying to make it a relatively simple procedure.
“People can recommend or nominate sites and we then appraise and assess it to see if it’s something we would want to proceed with.
“This is the start of the process.”
Private houses are eligible and any person or group can nominate a site.
All will receive an initial appraisal.
Drews Ave in Whanganui has multiple heritage buildings. Photo / Bevan Conley
Flutey said the minimum age of a site was set at 30 years but there could be more recent ones that had significance “for one reason or another”.
“It’s very much a case-by-case thing.
“We have standard ways of describing heritage - archaeological, architectural, historical, cultural - but everything really needs a proper, full assessment to draw out what’s special about it.
“Whanganui loves heritage, generally speaking. They are very engaged in different events and process around it. This closes on August 27 so I think that’s a good enough amount of time for people to have a good, long think.”
Nowadays, heritage had quite a broad definition, Flutey said.
“It’s not even just buildings. It could be a structure, it could be an object fixed to the ground or it could be a site itself. I’m expecting to get some surprises.
“I think the best thing for anyone to do is look at [council’s] ePlan online, which shows you what sites are already scheduled.”
Whanganui deputy mayor Helen Craig said it was important to understand what it meant once a site or structure was listed.
“Some protection is provided and listings have access to support, such as funding from Heritage NZ or the council’s Heritage Grant Fund,” she said.
“These grants can be extremely helpful in going towards such things as strengthening or upkeep.
“There are also some requirements that come along with alterations once a site is added to the heritage inventory, in order to retain and celebrate the heritage values.”
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.
