Dear Ministry of Education,
I request all written documents and information about the specific emergency health and safety reasons for the demolition of buildings at Riverdale School in Gisborne during December 2023 to January 2024. The Blind Low Vision Education Network, NZ (BLENNZ) provided specialist service to blind, low vision and deafblind children from a building at Riverdale that was demolished. The BLENNZ team was made aware in October 2023 that we had to vacate the premises by November 2023 for emergency health and safety reasons. We vacated the building on the 6 November 2023 and was placed into a temporary location at Cobham School in Gisborne.
At the time there were no definitive or specific health and safety reasons shared with the BLENNZ team regarding our removal and the demolition of the building. Robyn Burns, Infrastructure Manager of Te Puna Hanganga, Matihiko based in the Napier office, was my contact person. Numerous emails to Robyn Burns from BLENNZ Senior Leadership has yielded to this date no reply regarding the specific health and safety reasons for the removal of the BLENNZ team and the demolition of the building.
From the time that we shifted to Cobham school on the 6 November 2023 to the current date, the Ministry of Education has not provided specific emergency health and safety reasons for the removal of the BLENNZ team and demolition of the building. BLENNZ had worked in the building that was demolished for emergency health and safety reasons for over twenty years. I request all written documents and information pertaining to the emergency health and safety reasons for the demolition of the buildings at Riverdale School in Gisborne. This is to inform current staff, past employees and children and their families of any potential health risks that they might have come in contact with while in the building.

Yours faithfully,
Patrick Pink
Manager--BLENNZ Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Gisborne Visual Resource Centre
264A Lytton Road Elgin Gisborne 4010