Courthouse 'lunacy' decried

Dunedin barrister Anne Stevens speaks at yesterday's  Dunedin City Council meeting. Photo by...
Dunedin barrister Anne Stevens speaks at yesterday's Dunedin City Council meeting. Photo by Gerard O'Brien
The Government's refusal to confirm that court services will return to Dunedin's historic courthouse nas brought calls of ''double standards'', ''lunacy'', and ''bureaucratic incompetence'' from Dunedin city councillors.

The passionate support followed Dunedin barrister Anne Stevens' courthouse presentation to the council's finance committee yesterday.

Mrs Stevens gave an outline of the courthouse's fate following a 2011 engineering report into its earthquake strength.

She highlighted the qualities of the courthouse, the wide support its retention had received from New Zealand's legal community, and her belief that council backing and lobbying could help persuade the Government to commit to returning court services to the 113-year-old building.

Dunedin was a major judicial centre with an important legal community and its courthouse served its purpose well, she said.

Her fear was the Ministry of Justice's refusal to commit to returning court services to the building was evidence that, in the end, the decision would be a financial one, Mrs Stevens said.

The ministry was constantly referring to a ''business case'' which would inform Justice Minister Amy Adams and Cabinet as to whether the court was worth saving, she said.

Lobbying and pressure from Dunedin would be most needed at that point ''because then it becomes about dollars''.

''And that building is far too important to be left to a business case,'' she said.

Pressure needed to be applied to Government and the council could exert that pressure by being the ''squeaky wheel''.

Councillors unanimously agreed to lobby relevant Government ministers on the courthouse's future and to set up a taskforce to work at ensuring court services were returned to the building.

Cr David Benson-Pope said he was ''bemused'' by the lack of strengthening work to date.

The courthouse was one of Dunedin's most important buildings and it was ''inconceivable'' the council wouldn't be active in doing whatever it could ''to make sure that the Government faces up to what to me is a clear responsibility to maintain a category 1 listed building'', he said.

He could not believe the delays and lack of Government commitment to the building were a political decision ''to duck that responsibility''.

''Being charitable ... I can only assume it's a bit of bureaucratic incompetence by someone within one of the ministries. There's all sorts of lunacy around this that needs to be confronted.''

Cr Kate Wilson said there were many reasons why the building should remain the city's courthouse, and ''double standards'' being shown by the Government were particularly worrying.

''The attitude that it displays is of a Government that imposes on a lot of people the requirement to upgrade buildings, but are not prepared to do it themselves. And that is just wrong.''

Cr Lee Vandervis said the courthouse's history, dignity and splendour were values, rather than attributes of a business case, and councillors needed to convince ''all the relevant ministers'' to see the importance of those values.

The Justice Minister said in a statement last night her ''desire, intention and expectation is that we want to see the historic courthouse building strengthened and returned to, and that hasn't changed''.

''The building is an incredible historic building and a wonderful treasure for Dunedin, but it creates a very difficult complex and expensive process in terms of maintaining that historic character while creating a safe work environment," Ms Adams said.

''A decision will have to wait until a business case has been developed.''

Councillors voted unanimously to endorse two resolutions:

• To make urgent representations to relevant ministers in respect of the Dunedin courthouse, a category 1 listed building, seeking unequivocal commitment to work necessary to ensure its ongoing use for district court, high court, and associated functions; and

• That council co-ordinate a taskforce of interested parties to progress the issue.

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