We're reviewed the 2006 Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy and proposed some changes. We asked for feedback on the draft policy and that closed 5 December - 2 submissions were received.

The purpose of the policy is to reduce the risk of injury, death, ill health, or damage within Tairāwhiti communities by identifying and managing dangerous, affected and insanitary buildings in the region.

The draft policy covers all buildings in the region. It's separate from Council’s Earthquake Prone Buildings Policy, the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 (CDEM Act) red and yellow stickers and building permits.

As Council does not routinely conduct building checks under the draft policy, it's only relevant where danger has been identified by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), complaints or through daily Council operations. Notices issued under this policy are infrequent, 8 notices have been issued in the last 5 years.

Proposed updates to the policy align with Council priorities of celebrating our heritage, creating a vibrant city and townships, and connected and safe communities.

The final adoption of the policy was made by Council on January 25, 2024 and can be found here.

The key changes in the proposed policy:

• Proposal 1 Policy Purpose: A new Purpose section has been introduced making it clear that the draft Policy is focused on reducing the risk of injury or damage to people or property within the community.
• Proposal 2 Interpretation Section: Add an Interpretation Section and include the Act’s updated description of Heritage Building and the Act’s addition of Affected Building (section 2).
• Proposal 3 Readability: Scope of Application and Review (sections 3-4) have been added. Identification, Assessment and Taking Action (sections 6 – 8) have been updated for ease of readability and include relevant information from deleted sections.
• Proposal 4 Enforcement: Consolidate compliance and enforcement information into a single section to provide the public with clarity around measures available to Council (section 10).
• Proposal 5 Emergency Designation: Explain how the draft Policy functions in relation to an Emergency Designation (sections 11.2 and 11.3).
• Proposal 6 Expanded Heritage Section: Expanded Heritage section offering additional guidance on how to best protect essential heritage character (Section 13).

For more details about the 6 proposals, reasoning and options, please read the Statement of Proposal and Draft Policy document.