Kindy class concerned for buildings

Winton Kindergarten teacher Christina Vaughan and pupils (from left) Timo Frazer, Lexie and...
Winton Kindergarten teacher Christina Vaughan and pupils (from left) Timo Frazer, Lexie and Harriet Frew, Lizzie Price and Alex Wyllie, speak at Southland District Council yesterday. PHOTO: YVES BROERS
Cracks, overgrown roofs and empty buildings have prompted Winton Kindergarten youngsters to call for action.

The children made a special appearance at Southland District Council’s regulatory and consents committee meeting yesterday, saying they wanted the town’s infrastructure fixed.

Work was needed on earthquake-prone buildings, they said.

Teacher Christina Vaughan led Lexie and Harriet Frew, Lizzie Price, Alex Wyllie and Timo Frazer into the council chambers and presented a project they had worked on about the state of some of the buildings and thoroughfares in Winton.

It highlighted the need for tagged buildings to be made earthquake-proof, in order for the town to thrive.

Several of them had been closed for some time due to their risk.

Alex said during a class walk-through of the town, he noticed lots of old buildings with grass on their roofs.

If the buildings were not looked after, "they would break".

Timo said many had cracks in them, which was why nobody could go inside.

Children were worried if the buildings were not maintained, they could become a hazard for the community.

Mrs Vaughan said one of the "big themes" identified was the children’s lack of connection to buildings in the area because they had been labelled earthquake-prone and closed.

"We have ideas and we have our imagination to sort of think about what these buildings might be used for but we’re unable to connect with them if they don’t actually house any businesses."

She asked whether the children would be able to use the buildings when they grew up and had their own families.

The group’s submission was one of seven presented during the public forum after the council sought community feedback on the new system for identifying and managing earthquake-prone buildings, established by the Government in July 2017.

The consultation focused on vehicle and pedestrian thoroughfares with enough traffic to prioritise earthquake strengthening in Otautau, Riverton, Tuatapere, Winton and Wyndham.

Council staff wrote to 149 property owners whose buildings were deemed unsafe in the event of an earthquake.

Those owners had 12 months to provide an engineer’s report to the council, and 12 and a-half years from when the notice was issued to fix the problem.

Several submitters opposed the tagging of certain buildings in their area due to several factors, including the unlikelihood of an earthquake having an impact on the buildings, the costs associated with fixing them to meet the requirements and the time owners were given to do so.

Cr Paul Duffy, who chaired the meeting, said he was grateful for all the feedback, which the committee would take on board and discuss in a workshop before it was put to the council.

"The sooner we get talking about it the better."

A decision on what the next steps would be was set to be made in February.

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