24 October 2018

To:
Rt Hon. Jacinda Ardern, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage
j.ardern@ministers.govt.nz

Mayor & Councillors, Wellington City Council
mayor@wcc.govt.nz
councillors@wcc.govt.nz

Andrew Coleman, Chief Executive, Heritage NZ
andrew.coleman@heritage.org.nz

HERITAGE WEEK OPEN LETTER
RE: WELLINGTON TEACHERS TRAINING COLLEGE (FORMER), KARORI

Tēnā koutou

1. We write during this Heritage Week to ask you (Wellington City Council, Heritage New Zealand (HNZ) and the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage) to jointly lodge a notice of requirement for a heritage order to protect the Wellington Teachers Training College (Former) in Karori (WTTC).

2. We note that the College’s significant heritage value is undisputed by HNZ who acknowledged this in its Category I listing of the site earlier this year.

3. We are of the view that the WTTC meets the Regional Policy Statement criteria (Policies 21 and 22), requiring its listing in the Wellington District Plan.

4. If the WTTC was listed in the District Plan any proposal to demolish the buildings would require a notified resource consent giving all parties the opportunity to have their say on the demolition proposal.

5. This opportunity has been denied.

6. The only way to retify this is for a notice of requirement for a heritage order to be lodged. This will require a hearing and give the public an opportunity to submit on a proposal to protect this Category I heritage site and save it from demolition.

7. Only Heritage NZ, the WCC and a Minister of the Crown can lodge such a notice of requirement.

8. The demolition of the Wellington Teachers Training College is scheduled to commence imminently.

We consider this matter to be one of the utmost urgency.

Nāku iti noa, nā

Christine McCarthy, President, Architectural Centre
Philip Hartley, Chair Docomomo (NZ)
James Blackburne, President, Historic Places Aotearoa
Ian Bowman, Chair, ICOMOS NZ
Richard Bentley, Save the Karori Campus Group