Following the Special Council Meeting on Tuesday 2 March, where Council decided on the next steps to urgently achieve reopening of the road in front of 424 – 436 and 440 Hay Street, the City:
- engaged a third party consultant to design and install appropriately rated hoarding on Hay Street, to be installed as soon as possible.
- served an emergency building order on Sanur to stabilise 424 – 436 Hay Street.
- served a notice of proposed building order on Sanur to repair 440 Hay Street.
Yesterday, Sanur lodged an application with the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) for an urgent hearing today to:
- appeal the emergency building order to stabilise 424 – 436 Hay Street.
- stay (i.e. pause the application of) the emergency building order to stabilise 424 – 436 Hay Street.
- obtain an interim injunction to prevent the City from taking steps to partially reopen Hay Street.
Sanur also responded to the City opposing the notice of proposed building order on 440 Hay Street.
The City attended SAT today and opposed Sanur’s requests, seeking to continue to progress towards the partial opening of Hay Street by early next week, and the urgent stabilisation and repair of the properties to facilitate the full reopening of Hay Street as soon as possible.
The outcome of the SAT hearing was inconclusive, with the injunction to prevent the reopening of Hay Street postponed until Monday afternoon, and the appeal of the building order listed for hearing on 14 April.
As the experienced specialist heritage engineer’s report found that 440 Hay Street can be repaired, and 424 - 436 Hay Street can be stabilised to facilitate further investigation to potentially repair the building, the City is continuing to seek reopening of Hay Street.
Out of an abundance of caution and to instil public confidence in the safety of Hay Street, the City planned to install hoarding in front of the buildings at 424 – 436 and 440 Hay Street before partially reopening Hay Street. The installation has now been delayed pending the outcome of the adjourned SAT hearing brought on by Sanur.