Mayor Len made a press release that seems to confirm the report that the Cho brothers are likely to sue the Council and the demolition contractor as one brother said on the eve of the demolition of the old building. Mayor Len said he had a preliminary report but he wasn't going to release it because some parties were being hostile and threatening litigation. I think Len, a lawyer, knows that the information will be discovered to the Cho brothers if they go ahead. But he may not know that by 10pm on the eve of the old hotel's destruction the building had ceased to move, he also might not know that the demolition was videoed and clearly shows how strong and stable the heart of the building remained and it's defiance against the excavator bucket.
If Mayor looks at Ch Ch he will have seen the time given to carefully assess the condition of heritage buildings, there was no rush, as there needed to be no rush in Auckland - the area was cordoned off, slightly inconvenient yes but dangerous no. Moreover, Mayor Len may not know of the efforts may in Chch to support the damaged buildings whilst repairs might be made, or that the same happened with the Auckland High Court in relatively recent years. I think Mayor Len already knows that Council engineers approved and signed off the work to be done on the Hotel and also that the Chos (whose investment in the building was huge)merely asked for time for a second opinion to save the 100 year plus building. It was reported in the papers that the annexes were showing the most fragility not the building proper giving rise to another issue if the damage on the annexes could in anyway promote the need to demolish the entire building proper or if resin could have been sprayed into the cracks and temporary braces put in place to see if that might have brought a remedy that the digger buckets never would.
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