27 January 2011

Save Our St Heliers Inc.
Auckland’s Heritage Dealt Another Blow
The bulldozers will be moving in to destroy another unique piece of Auckland’s heritage after the Environment Court decided today that an enforcement order would not be granted to Save Our St Heliers Society to prevent demolition of the heritage houses in Turua Street.

‘It's a tragedy these colonial era and 1930s houses, that mean so much to so many people across Auckland, will be lost forever without an independent, thorough assessment of their heritage value,‘ says Dorothy McHattie, spokesperson for the group.

Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook said in his ruling that the Society had not provided evidence that the buildings were of heritage value. He said it was not sufficient that the buildings were liked or even loved by numbers of people to grant an enforcement order.

But a heritage report, submitted only on Tuesday by George Farrant of the Auckland Council, was accepted by the judge as the best material he had to work with.

The Society strongly disagrees with the acceptance of this hastily produced assessment done by a party which cannot be considered impartial. The Society did not submit a heritage report itself because it didn’t think it was appropriate to carry one out so quickly and superficially, and was actually asking the Court to stop demolition and grant the time for a comprehensive investigation by an independent consultant.

Barry Colman, who has funded the court battle to save the Turua Street buildings, said the new project still had to be built and tenanted in the face of overwhelming ill-will in the community. ‘The wanton vandalism in bulldozing a whole street of old buildings is just plain wrong. People are asking: ‘how could this happen with all the safe-guards that are meant to be in the planning legislation’,’ Mr Colman said.