September 20 2016 nelson weekly 48pgs web

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Nelson Weekly Locally Owned and Operated

tuesday 20 September 2016

page 14

Fire brigade turns 150

prices go back-to-back page 36

Page 23-26

Columns at Trafalgar Centre ‘ripped off’

Copeland wants to be councillor and MP

Andrew Board

Nelson City councillor Ruth Copeland is hoping to be elected twice in as many years. The two-term councillor is running to regain her seat on council, as well as putting her name forward to be the Labour Party’s Nelson representative for next year’s general election. Copeland will front a selection day for Labour Party members exactly a week before the local body elections close on October 8. If she is selected over Rachel Boyack and Frank Hippolite as the Labour Party nominee she will contest the general election against incumbent Nick Smith in 2017. If she was to win the Nelson seat it would mean she would resign as a councillor, forcing a byelection. When approached for comment, Copeland says being a councillor gives her a stronger position from which to campaign. “If I am fortunate enough to be selected as Labour’s candidate as well as be re-elected to the council, I will continue to serve as a councillor until the outcome of the 2017 general election is known.”

Shocking photographs taken by construction workers at Nelson’s largest civic building show massive cracks in columns that are attached to the arches that hold up the roof of the Trafalgar Centre. In December 2013, Nelson City Council voted to close the centre after it was deemed to be a risk to life in the event of a major earthquake. The decision upset many in the community, with its closure causing major problems to event organisers. Last year a plan was agreed to upgrade the centre with strengthening work and a new northern end. Work started late last year and the centre has been open sporadically since April. But what wasn’t known at the time the centre was closed was just how bad the hidden structural

columns were. Photos passed to Nelson Weekly show the reinforcing of one column exposed and another with a huge crack through it. The columns are on the western side of the main hall. A source familiar with the project told the Weekly that the damage was likely to have occurred in an earthquake but they couldn’t be sure. “The columns are connected directly to the main arches of the main building. The indication from the cracked columns is that the building has moved in an earthquake and it has ripped the top of those columns off.” Work was stopped in the area when the damage to the columns were discovered and engineers had to weld on steel plates to the existing structure. Mayor Rachel Reese says the photos show that the

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Damaged columns that were exposed during the Trafalgar Centre upgrade show the reinforcing exposed. Photo: Supplied.

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