Bluff Oyster Festival hangs on resource consent hearing
"The do-nothing option will not rectify the risks currently associated with building."
Representatives of the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival will again state their case to have a historic building demolished to allow the 2024 festival to go ahead.
A resource consent hearing will be held on Wednesday, November 15 where the trust that runs the festival, and owns the Club Hotel building, will ask for the green light to demolish it.
The matter has already been a drawn-out saga and has had ramifications for one of Southland’s most popular events given it led to the cancellation of this year’s Bluff Oyster and Food Festival.
There were health and safety concerns associated with the Club Hotel which is situated on the festival site.
It is located on the south side of Gore Street in Bluff and has been vacant for close to two decades. It is in a poor state because of extensive ingress of water over an extended period.
The trust bought the Category 2 heritage building and the land in 2014.
It has since attempted to sell it but failed to attract a buyer. It then applied to the Invercargill City Council in 2019 for resource consent to demolish the building.
However, that resource consent request was declined by hearing commissionaire Peter Constantine.
In his decision, Constantine stated he was “very concerned that there is a significant lack of detail in the application to be able to definitively rule out the potential for alternative outcomes that might not involve demolition.”
Since that decision the Invercargill City Council has issued a Dangerous and Insanitary Building Notice which had required demolition of the building by March 16 this year.
The trust that owns the building then lodged a new resource consent application to demolish the building but that did not progress.
It had hoped to have the building demolished in time for the 2023 event in May, but the application was not approved, and the festival was cancelled.
At the time festival organisers stated: “Our demolition contractor submitted a resource consent application. Unfortunately, Invercargill City Council amended their previous notice and the process now required will mean the dangerous Club Hotel will still be looming over the site in May 2023.”
Organisers considered risks associated with the building were too high given it is located on the festival site and adjoins areas utilised for the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival.
WSP’s Luke McSoriley has prepared a report on behalf of the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival Charitable Trust for the November 15 hearing.
It notes that the level of degradation to the building makes remedial repairs prohibitively expensive.
It also states demolition will mean the festival will be able to return once the building is demolished.
As well as easing safety concerns it says the festival organisers could add another 1000 people to the current 5000 capacity, or the added space could enhance the experience for those that attend.
“The Bluff Oyster and Food Festival enables social and economic activity locally and regionally and functions as an important event for locals and visitors to Bluff, Invercargill and Southland. The proposal will have positive social and economic effects,” the report says.
“The do-nothing option will not rectify the risks currently associated with building. The Invercargill City Council has issued a Dangerous and Insanitary Building Notice to the applicant which required demolition of the building by 16 March 2023.
“The Trust is unable to comply with that Notice as the building cannot be demolished until resource consent is obtained.”
I am all for retaining historic buildings when it is viable but this building has been empty for 20 years. No one will buy it so demolish it and give the Bluff community an even bigger event that will deliver real long-term benefits.
it is such a shame that with our stringent regulations in NZ that so much of our history and character is getting lost when in lots of overseas countries these are now the sort after areas, as has also happened in Ponsonby in Auckland which a number of years ago was regarded as the pits. With more tourists and more favourable economic conditions this would make an interesting place for them to shop in prior to catching the ferry with accommodation on top.