Urgent help needed to save deteriorating cement works

Vandals are trying to knock down a chimney and walls at the old cement works in Warkworth, a Rodney Local Board meeting heard last week.

Cement works conservation trust founder Tina Earl made a heartfelt plea for urgent help to get the fence surrounding the site fixed, before someone was hurt or the landmark ruins deteriorated even further.

“We’re getting kids going in there,” she said. “Instead of just graffiti, now they’re getting up on the structure and hacking away at a chimney. The metal reinforcing inside it is all rusty and very weak now, and it’s going to fall very soon.

“They’re also going up where the brickwork is very weak and they’re pushing on it, so we’re getting a lot of vandalism. We can’t stop them, but we could at least deter them.”

Earl said it was two years since she’d last spoken to board members and, although she’d had plenty of communication with council heritage and facilities departments, nothing had happened.

Earl said one of the most frustrating aspects was that the trust had volunteers ready to do work to remove rubbish, clear gorse, remove graffiti and fix fencing, but they needed council approval to get on with it.

“It’s Warkworth’s 170th anniversary this year and we’ve been approached by a number of people to offer tours, but we’re not willing to because it’s a tip. It’s horrible down there,” Earl said.

“We’ve had many people come and visit us and make lists of what needs to be done, but nothing has actually happened. We can’t even get council to sign off on a skip for us.

“I know it can’t be preserved and renovated, but it can be stabilised. It requires maintenance and strategic planning. Can we get a commitment to do something?”

Warkworth member Tim Holdgate said council staff had indicated there was a need for work to be done there and that was already underway, so he was surprised to hear nothing had yet happened.

“The health and safety issues are a real concern, for youngsters and anyone else getting onto the site,” he said. Board chair Brent Bailey said the fence was a community facilities issue and he would contact the department to ask staff about it and have them contact the conservation trust. Later on in the meeting, while works programme funding reallocation was being discussed, members heard from board staff that the cement works were on the work schedule for the next financial year and the year after that.