Fears of 'a bad heritage outcome' if historic nurses home not restored

Heritage Taranaki is calling for the government to step in and save the historic Barrett St Nurses Home in New Plymouth.

They say the protected building, constructed in the early 1920s, is falling to pieces while Land Information NZ (LINZ) is making sure the land-banked property is safe enough to offer to iwi.

Te Atiawa has first right of refusal to buy the 7.6 hectare former Barrett St Hospital site - which includes the decaying nurses home - as part of its Treaty settlement.

LINZ has demolished the hospital buildings and is in the process of decontaminating the grounds, but the boarded up nurses home - which has Category A heritage listing in the District Plan - remains.

Heritage Taranaki chairperson Ivan Bruce said the nurses home, which featured a wooden sprung dance-floor in its social hall, was one of the finest public buildings left in New Plymouth.

"It was built in 1920-1921 and its part of the Messenger, Griffiths and Taylor firm of Taranaki architects who built a number of fairly impressive public buildings around the district."

He said Te Atiawa couldn't be expected to take on the building in its current condition.

"Our perspective is that the building is a heritage building. It does have a lot of value as a heritage building and is really important to our community and it should be offered back to them in a state where they can actually use it.

"The New Zealand government has a role in ensuring this building is handed back to Te Atiawa or that Te Atiawa are given the option of purchasing it in a usable state."

Bruce said it did not bear thinking about what would happen if the government did not step up.

"The alternative is that this building will be allowed to fall to ruin and it will be crushed up, destroyed by bulldozers, put into trucks and shipped to Hampton Downs where it goes into landfill.

"That's a terrible outcome for everybody. It's a bad environmental outcome, it's a bad heritage outcome and it doesn't make any sense to keep knocking these things down."

Bruce hoped that the building could be seen as an opportunity similar to the St Mary's Vicarage and White Hart Tavern in the city rather than an encumbrance.

Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa pouwhakahaere Dion Tuuta said the building's protected status and condition did limit what the iwi could do on the site, which had huge development potential.

"The purpose of the [Treaty] settlement for us is to help us exercise our freedom of choice in what we want to do and at the moment the nurses home as it is currently there and under the current protections it does present a constraint or a limit on what we would be able to do with the site.

"So we have to work through what that means for us and there is obviously a lot of interest in that particular building."

The heritage listing means, should Te Atiawa buy the property, they would need resource consents to make any substantial changes to the nurses home or demolish it.

Tuuta said there was a slim possibility the iwi could be interested in the nurses home, but the government's management of the building had not helped.

"None of us have been served well by the Crown's stewardship of this particular property.

"They've allowed it to fall into wrack and ruin to the point where they've as part of the Treaty settlement handed it over to us as a community to sort out and, you know, that's going to be an interesting and probably challenging discussion."

Tuuta also noted the Barrett St Hospital was built on Otumaikuku Pa which had heritage values of its own.

Building could spur heritage reflection

Heritage Taranaki secretary Rob Green is the chair of the organising committee of the first-ever Taranaki Heritage Month which begins in October.

He said the event was designed to get people thinking about what was heritage.

"I actually see this building as right at the place where the rubber meets the road, if you like, in terms of policy, in terms of what is heritage, whose heritage is it and why should we protect this, who says this is heritage and is it really heritage?"

Green also wanted to see the government do more.

"We totally get that Te Atiawa should not be compelled in any why to remediate this building themselves.

"They were promised an unencumbered site and this is an encumbrance clearly as it is and it's up to the government to make sure this is not an encumbrance."

New Plymouth Neil Holdom did not expect government help however.

"Where they hold these buildings for potential Treaty settlements they generally lock them up, fence them off and leave them.

"And we've got this ruin sitting a couple of blocks from the CBD derelict, leaky, dangerous and I can't see anyone from government flying in to save the day."

Holdom said the site's heritage values had to be balanced against Te Atiawa's aspirations.

"We want our Taranaki iwi investments to succeed and their focus on developing housing for the elderly and lifting the well-being of their people is really important as well, so you've got to balance this."

Earthquake risk

LINZ said the the former nurses home was an earthquake risk and not safe to occupy.

Manager project and hazard management delivery Matthew Bradley said undertaking any work on a heritage building was complex.

"There are a number of steps that need to occur before this can begin. This includes considering health and safety factors and heritage restrictions. At this stage, our focus is on works to prohibit access to the building."

Meanwhile, LINZ had made a submission to the proposed district plan to re-assess the nurses home's heritage status.

Bradley said it would be up to Te Atiawa or any other potential buyer to decide what the future of the site would be.

Taranaki Heritage Month involves events around the province and runs from 1 October to 5 November.