Significant progress at former Barrett St hospital

Only remnants of the former Barrett St hospital remain after demolition resumed earlier this year.

Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), which manages the 7.6-hectare property in New Plymouth on behalf of the Crown, has had crews busy clearing the site since February.

LINZ Project and Hazard Management Delivery Manager Matt Bradley says the only building left at the site is the former nurses’ home, which is heritage-listed in the district plan.

He says the seven non-heritage buildings have been demolished and the stockpiles of material removed from site. 

“We’re pleased to have largely cleared the site. Our contractors have worked hard to get to this point in such a short amount of time. For about a month, around 17 truck and trailer units of waste were removed from the site each day. In total, 7000 tonnes of waste has been cleared from the site.”

Mr Bradley says hundreds of soil samples have been taken over the last few weeks to help inform any future work.

We continue to work closely with Ngāti Te Whiti Hapū, Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa and our environmental consultants to determine if future work is required.

The site is part of a Treaty settlement with Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa, who have first right of refusal for the property.   

Background information

The former Barrett St hospital is one of around 900 properties, including former prisons, hospitals, schools and houses earmarked for future Treaty settlements that LINZ manages and maintains on behalf of the Crown. 

LINZ took over management of the site in 2016.

Demolition began in 2016 and was making steady progress, with 14 structures and connecting service tunnels removed, until larger than anticipated amounts of asbestos were discovered in 2018. This saw work come to a halt, as a resource consent was required to remove the contaminated material from the site.

Work was able to resume earlier this year after a resource consent was granted by the New Plymouth District Council.