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More than a year after the Queenstown Lakes District Council was told its main  building in Queenstown could suffer a "brittle collapse" in a major earthquake, no alternative site has yet been confirmed, nor has any funding been allocated.

Council chief executive Mike Theelen said in an email this week  a generator was still being installed at the Queenstown Events Centre — where the emergency operations centre was moved  following a council meeting last August —  and the council had "recently commenced" a shift towards "cloud-hosting" its email system.

That followed advice to the council last May that at 35% of current code, the Gorge Rd building in Queenstown was at the minimum earthquake safety level and, as such, it could not continue to house public records, or act as a centre for emergency management.

Once the generator was installed,  the primary server room for the council would also be relocated to the Queenstown Events Centre to "increase the resilience of our on-premises IT infrastructure".

That was expected to be complete by December.

Public records were "less of an issue", given most were now held electronically, he said.

While work was being done to identify a site suitable to house all council staff  at present in three locations in the CBD, to date, no site has been confirmed and no funding allocated.

"The current intention is to consult on location options for the new office through the 2016-17 annual plan, with funding to be included in the 2018 10-year plan."

In July 2012 the Otago Daily Times reported the council had called for expressions of interest to provide accommodation for all staff under one roof within the CBD.

The relocation at that time was to remove operating inefficiencies and confusion for the community, improve customer service and value for money.

But 11 months later, the council announced it had shelved those plans because it had begun an organisational review of staff and resources.

Comments

As the basin continues to develop, its clearly time to relocate all the Queenstown based staff in one location. The obvious choice is a purpose built building at Frankton near the real commercial hub of the town. This would also free up prime development land in downtown Queenstown. Its a win - win and in theory should be cheaper than trying to create a new site in the CBD.

 

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