Community working bee in Te Aro, Wellington

Te Aro locals worked hard all day on the beginnings of a community building project.

A community building project began today in Wellington's historic Te Aro area, on a derelict heritage building declared unfit for habitation by Wellington City Council inspectors in April 2002. Members of the 128 Collective arrived at 128 Abel Smith St at 9am with tools and gloves and began clearing rubbish and making good. The property's legal owners, a registered non-profit body called the Lebanese Society, are pleased to see the building being restored and provided a waste skip which by 6pm was loaded to capacity (double decker style.)

The building is situated alongside the proposed Inner-City Bypass route. It was discovered during research work done by the anti-bypass group Campaign for a Better City (CBC) that 128 was not owned by road builders Transit New Zealand, who have been highly resistant to working with the local community on heritage restoration. Associates of CBC made contact with the Secretary of the Lebanese Society and have agreed in principle to work together on restoring the heritage features of the site and bringing the building up to standard for community usage.