The Dunedin City Council has rejected a claim a deck was ‘‘turned down'' for consent for being ‘‘significantly stronger'' than it needed to be.
A letter published in the Otago Daily Times yesterday said a ‘‘friend'' of the letter writer who was building a deck had his plans turned down by council inspectors as they exceeded the minimum standard.
The friend then allegedly told inspectors he wanted the deck stronger for when ‘‘his kids were having their 21sts and crowding on to the deck'' and it was approved.
The owner of the deck refused to comment yesterday.
Council building services manager Neil McLeod responded to the claims saying the New Zealand building code prescribed minimum standards for building work.
‘‘Let's be clear, if a person wishes to build to exceed those minimum standards, they will not be refused a building consent.
‘‘It is possible that someone building beyond the building code expectation would be advised that their work exceeded the minimum standard, but they would not be refused a building consent.''
Council chief executive Dr Sue Bidrose said the council could not
refuse consent for plans for being above the standard.‘‘It's an urban myth. It's just not possible,'' Dr Bidrose said.
The council had fielded allegations like this in the past, she said.
‘‘I can't promise 100% but we know that we've [had these allegations] before and it's never stood up to scrutiny.
‘‘These urban myths, they damage our reputation.‘‘I don't mind us taking the whack for things we do do. I'm not that keen on taking the whack for things we don't.''
Building inspectors would advise on how a deck might be built, she said.
‘‘If we didn't do that and somebody built something that was four times as expensive as they should and found out they didn't need to, I'm sure they would be ... complaining that we hadn't told them.''
