Our reference: qA83794
Enquiries to: Dominic Rikiti, General Manager Business Services
Email: [email address]
4 July 2023
Frank
Via email to FYI.org.nz: [FYI request #23089 email]
Dear Frank
Official Information Request for ECC/EOC Seismic Resilience
I refer to your official information request, made under the Local Government Official Information
and Meetings Act 1987 and received 11 June 2023 as follows:
Please identify for your CDEM Group and it’s members each building that is currently
identified as the building intended/likely to be used as
-the ECC
-an EOC
after a seismic event.
Please provide the buildings current %nbs at IL4, the date of the last assessment, and the
type of seismic assessment completed.
Alternately if you do not hold/cannot provide the above please provide the last seismic
assessment for the buildings identified above
Your request has been granted in full.
Our CDEM Group is Emergency Management Southland (EMS). Their website can be found here:
https://cdsouthland.nz/
There are four councils in Southland, these being:
Environment Southland (brand name of Southland Regional Council)
Gore District Council
Invercargill City Council
Southland District Council
EMS is a shared service between the four Southland councils. It allows our region to act much like a unitary
authority, and so therefore EMS does not operate Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) in Southland.
The Emergency Co-ordination Centre (ECC) is located in “Tau Whakamaru”, an outbuilding at the
Environment Southland offices on the corner of North Road and Price Street, Invercargill.
The ECC building was established in 2010. During this project, a consultant engineering design firm was
engaged to provide services for the “structural check and design of upgrade for Importance Level 4”.
Invercargill City Council, as the Building Consent Authority, approved the upgraded design.
Invercargill City Council has not sought an NBS rating for the building, because as part of their seismic
profiling of buildings, it has to fall under one of three categories to require an engineer’s assessment. The
ECC building did not fit into any of these categories. You can find out more about Invercargill City Council’s
system for managing earthquake-prone buildings here: https://icc.govt.nz/earthquake-prone-buildings/
I hope that this fully answers your enquiry and the additional context is helpful. If you wish to discuss this
matter with us further, please feel free to contact Dominic Rikiti, General Manager Business Services, at
[email address].
You also have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Dominic Rikiti
General Manager, Business Services
