2018 Southland museum was shut after
Invercargill new CEO Clare Hadley stated
a “peer review”, 2013 Opus Structural
report, had deemed the museum unsafe.
Architect Bob Simpson critic the claim,
“it’s not a peer review at all… it’s a bloody
three-page letter from someone that
wandered around the building one day,
got instructed the next day and wrote a
three page comment that doesn’t really
address any of the stuff you need to
address.

Simpson maintains the museum
is solid, that associated buildings are in
line with building code requirements.
Leading Clare Hadley to respond on May
5th that “Retired” architect, Bob Simpson,
has made a number of assertions. “I have
answered all his questions, adding “Some
people have also suggested the closure is
part of a hidden agenda”. Hadley’s
reaction to accusation the earthquake risk
is just an excuses to move the Museum
and the art gallery also shut by the ICC
(before Hadley was CEO) into a newly built
cultural centre pushed by business
interests. Simpson is not retired but a
practicing architect, builder and company
director says Hadley did not answer “all”
his questions or “all” the questions of
structural engineer Lou Robinson,
quantity surveyor Lindsay Buckingham,
regarding the Opus report or Mrs
Hadley’s interpretation of Health and
Safety Act and the Building Act. He advises
those wanting an “accurate” record of
what was asked and what’s not being
answered should visit

www.openthemuseum.com

To date the
museum remains closed, the ICC insist
Hadley acted correctly and competently.
When Hadley was employed by the ICC,
in 2016, the Council was keen for the
public to know Hadley work history
including her role as President of the
Society of Local Government Managers
2010-12, and as a board member of
Business Central 2008-12, political action
group who lobby on behalf of business
interests.

The ICC highlighted her
“leadership” of the multimillion dollar
Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre (NTC) upgrade
as examples of her competency. Omitted
from the presskit was how Hadley
engineered an attempted shutdown of the
NTC in 2013. Hadley insisted the NTC was
an earthquake risk when the Nelson
Ratepayer Association, which included
building and architectural professionals,
argued the decision to knock down the
NTC was based on inaccurate information
provided by consultants Hadley had
employed.

In the end the NRA argument
won the day but not before further
expensive consultancy work led to the
NTC being upgraded (not torn town). and
it being revealed the ICC ignored the NCC
own documentation as the NRA first
maintained. Hadley who had been
appointed to the NCC only the year
before, in 2015, would, following the
debacle, be paid out an undisclosed sum
before heading south to her new job as
ICC CEO.