City councillor calls for legal opinion around museum closure

Monday, 4 June 2018

The closed Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

Invercargill city councillor Allan Arnold wants the council to get a legal opinion around the closure of the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

Arnold has lodged a motion for Tuesday's council meeting, which contains an email he sent to the council chief executive Clare Hadley on May 25.

Paul Horner, Southland Museum and Art Gallery manager.

The email says he wants to lodge a notice of motion asking that council requests its legal counsel to seek clarification from MBIE and WorkSafe NZ on whether, if the Southland Museum and Art Gallery was to erect signage declaring the museum to be earthquake prone, would council's legal obligations be discharged?'

Councillors will vote on whether or not to seek the legal advice.

Registered quantity surveyor Lindsay Buckingham, who has lobbied the council to reopen the museum, welcomed the news.

'My view remains the same, that despite the building being determined earthquake prone, continued occupation is permitted by both the 2017 earthquake prone building provisions of the Building Act and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.'

It was time the museum access was returned to those that owned it, 'the people of Southland,' while everyone worked together towards developing a plan for its future, he said.

Meanwhile, the council plans to establish a temporary building or structure outside of the now closed Southland Museum and Art Gallery for the 12 remaining museum staff to do some of their work from.

However, much of their work will still be done inside the earthquake prone museum building which has been deemed too unsafe for the public to enter.

The museum was closed in April due to earthquake safety concerns.

Of the 41 staff previously working inside the pyramid building, just 12 were retained to catalogue the thousands of museum artefacts stored inside.

Museum Manager Paul Horner said the 12 staff were working under strict health and safety guidelines.

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These had been implemented since the closure of the museum building because it was at risk in case of an earthquake, he said.

'Council is working to establish a temporary building of some kind, outside of the museum, for staff to work from.'

'As soon as an exterior building/structure can be arranged, all non-essential work will be carried out from that building, not from inside the museum.'

However, essential work being done inside the museum building, to catalogue and maintain the collection, must be done within the building because that was where the collection was located.

The 12 staff working inside the museum building were required to log their location in the building on a whiteboard near the door, wear hi-viz vests, sturdy footwear, and carry a cellphone at all times.

'Staff undertake toolbox meetings every morning to discuss hazards and to identify where they will be working in the building that day,' Horner said.