Future of Bluff festival in jeopardy

The Club Hotel, in Bluff. Photo: Janette Gellatly

The trust running the popular annual event has been denied permission to knock down a deteriorating historic building it cannot sell and does not have the money to maintain.

Consent to demolish the category 2 listed heritage building, the Club Hotel in Gore St, Bluff, has been denied by hearing commissioner Peter Constantine.

The Bluff Oyster and Food Festival Charitable Trust, which has owned the building since 2014, applied to the Invercargill City Council to have it pulled down because it could not afford to maintain it and because of the public safety liability concerns.

In his decision, Mr Constantine said it appeared to come down to a choice between demolition and associated redevelopment of the site, and the retention of a building that was continuing to deteriorate and would remain unoccupied.

But there had been a significant lack of detail in the application to rule out the potential for alternatives, such as partial demolition, public agency-funded restoration, and retention or adaptive reuse of the buildings.

''I am also persuaded that the proposal will result in significant adverse effects on the environment and that it is not consistent with the outcomes sought by the relevant planning instruments.''

Festival trust chairman John Edminstin said he was disappointed with the outcome.

The trust would discuss the future of the festival at a meeting after this year's event on May 25, but ''at this moment, the future of the festival is up in the air''.

''We are focusing on this year's event. We generally put up tickets to sell [for the next year] on the evening of the festival, but this will not happen this year.''

The main concern was the health and safety of the public, he said.

The festival was growing in popularity - up to 5000 people were expected this year.

However, as the building deteriorated, a buffer zone would have to be put into place between it and the festival site, which would mean 600-1000 fewer people could attend the festival.

''If we have to sell less tickets than we sell now, it would not be financially viable to carry on. It is a problem that we're going to talk about next month - after the event,'' Mr Edminstin said.

Mr Constantine's report said the trust bought the building and its land in 2014, for the land that sat behind them.

The trust's intention was to subdivide the sites, leaving the buildings on one (or more) new sites, and to incorporate the ''vacant'' land into the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival site, which has been developed to the rear of the subject buildings.

A larger site would be able to accommodate up to 1000 extra people.

But the trust had since been unable to sell the buildings, so was applying to demolish them and use the space for the festival.

Trustee Kylie Fowler said it would not appeal the decision.

''We think it is irresponsible to spend any more money on the Club Hotel. It is already too costly.''

Councillor Lloyd Esler, who sits on the Bluff Community Board, said the community had been in favour of the demolition.

He was not sure about the next steps or the future of the festival.

Bluff Community Board chairman Raymond Fife said he was surprised at the outcome, but would not comment as he had not read the decision yet.

Bobbi Brown, group manager for tourism, community and events at Venture Southland - which is working on a tourism strategy for Southland that identifies built heritage tourism as a substantial opportunity - declined to comment.

luisa.girao@odt.co.nz