Housing Minister Chris Bishop slams Wellington's Gordon Wilson flats
Thursday, 22 August 2024
Housing and Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop has taken a swing at Wellington’s crumbling Gordon Wilson flats not long after grudgingly saving them.
And now it looks as if the controversially heritage-listed central Wellington building could become the poster child for a loosening of heritage protection.
“The continued existence of Gordon Wilson Flats is an ugly scar on the Wellington skyline,” Bishop told the Local Government New Zealand Conference in Wellington on Thursday.
“The property owners want it gone. The community want it gone. Even the council want it gone.
“But still it stands – held up only by crumbling walls and a crumbling heritage system that values the preservation of falling-down eyesores over growth and modernity.”
The Gordon Wilson flats on The Terrace were home to 131 people until 2012, when Housing New Zealand kicked them out after an engineer’s report showed large slabs of the concrete exterior could come off in a quake or even a strong wind.
Victoria University bought the property but the flats have remained crumbling and off-limits since with heritage protection but no desire to repair them.
The university has been trying to remove the building’s heritage protection and it looked set to succeed when the Wellington City Council in March voted to remove the protection as it redid its district plan.
But the final decision on the flat’s fate, as well as a number of other heritage-protected buildings, sat with Bishop who rejected the council’s application.
The rejection was understood to be due to a lack of legal evidence presented by council.
Bishop on Thursday suggested the Gordon Wilson flats could have a new spot in history – as the flagship for heritage changes as the Government was looking at how it managed heritage protection.
“Managing heritage listed buildings is a significant issue for building owners and councils, as highlighted earlier this year when Wellington City Council tried to delist the Gordon Wilson Flats and other heritage buildings.”
Changes were being worked on, he said.