Wednesday, 7 February 2018

Upper Hutt Central Library building closed

Upper Hutt City Council has taken the precautionary measure of closing the Upper Hutt Central Library after new information has revealed it is earthquake prone.

UPPER HUTT, Wellington NZ, 07 FEB 2018—Upper Hutt Central Library is closed until further notice. Recent engineering reports have identified parts of the structure as earthquake prone. Being a public building, the Upper Hutt Central Library is classified as ‘Importance Level 3’ which has more stringent structural requirements than private places of work or residential buildings.

“Careful consideration has gone into the decision to close the building,” says Upper Hutt City Council Chief Executive, Chris Upton. “Ultimately, it is the safety of our staff and customers that is of primary concern to us.”

Under the Building Act, buildings that are identified as earthquake prone have a period of time in which to remedy their structural issues. Upper Hutt City Council has determined that the best course of action is to close the building immediately, to maintain safety for staff and the public.

“With information this fresh, it is difficult to determine exactly what remedial actions will be taken,” says Council’s Director of Community Services, Mike Ryan. “As things become clearer, we’ll be able to determine a way forward for the building and our library services.”

Upper Hutt City Libraries service

The closure of the Upper Hutt Central Library building will cause disruption to services and programmes. Programme updates will be issued in the following days as staff work through the implications.

Returns will not be available at the Central Library building. All borrowed items will have an automatic 2-week extension to allow a workaround for the returns service to be implemented. In the meantime, library customers will be able to return items to the Pinehaven and mobile libraries.

Our first priority after the closure is to redeploy our staff and work through how we can keep service disruption to a minimum,” says Upper Hutt City Libraries Manager, Marion Read.

Keep updated on the closure

As Council works though the implications of closing the Upper Hutt Central Library building, we’ll be issuing updates to the community. We expect to have further information for the media on Monday 12 February. Please monitor the following channels for news and updates on the building, library services, and programmes.
Upper Hutt City Council website: https://upperhuttcity.com

Upper Hutt City Council Facebook page: https://facebook.com/upperhuttcitycouncil

Upper Hutt City Libraries website: https://upperhuttlibrary.co.nz/

Upper Hutt City Libraries Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UpperHuttCityLibrary

Upper Hutt City Libraries Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/uhlibrary

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