The Whakatane District Council has released a Draft Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy for community feedback.

The draft policy will replace the existing 2016 policy covering earthquake-prone, dangerous and insanitary buildings, as required by a government amendment to the Building Act 2004.

The main changes to the policy are to:

Remove the earthquake-prone of the existing policy, as this area is now covered by the Building Act.

Include affected buildings, which are essentially any buildings which could be directly affected by a dangerous building.

'Consultation on the draft policy is now underway, with formal submissions open until June 28 2019,” says a statement from the Whakatane District Council.

'The Draft Dangerous, Affected and Insanitary Buildings Policy 2019, together with the Statement of Proposal and a submission form, are available on the Council website.

'Hard copies of these documents are also available to council offices and public libraries throughout the district.

'The council encourages all interested persons and organisations to make online submissions via Whakatane.govt.nz/haveyoursay, or to fill out and return a submission form.”