In February this year a small community childcare centre based in Waitara reached out to ECC for help because they received a shock letter from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) terminating their lease.
The centre, Waitara & District Community Childcare Centre (Waitara centre), had been operating from the site for decades, with many current teachers having themselves been children at the much-loved community centre, with further generations going through. Of course ECC had to step in to try to help our member.
Initially ECC’s focus was on getting the centre more time – the termination notice gave them only 45 days. That just isn’t long enough to find a new site and have the MoE organise a licence. For people who don’t know, the establishment of a centre on a green or new site takes about 3.6 years on average (ECC submission, Feb 2022).
LINZ’s termination letter did not say why the lease was being terminated, but defensively asserted they were only required to give one month notice.
We were told by the Waitara centre team that they believed LINZ was terminating the lease because the property was connected to a Treaty settlement process (underway for many years, and still underway today). The site needed to be cleared before its transfer. What they understood to be the motivation was based on verbal discussions with LINZ officials. Nothing in writing existed.
I was actually on leave when the centre manager and treasurer Wendy Yandle reached out for help. My mother had passed away unexpectedly a couple of days before and I was in Dunedin. However, I recognised the unfolding crisis and was still able to rattle off an urgent letter to ministers to make a case for government intervention to help the Waitara centre. It seemed to me that LINZ was not acting reasonably, and the risks of closure looked extremely high.
Initially I believed the termination was related to the iwi settlement process. The centre team did in fact have (and still has) an excellent working relationship with the local iwi. So ECC formed the view that the centre needed to remain open so the iwi could become the new landlord, just don’t cancel the lease please LINZ.
However, there was also a nagging concern about the overall state of the building. Half of the building was visibly extremely run-down and disused. There had even been issues with leaks in the roof and there was water damage visible in a couple of the rooms within the licensed area of the centre.
ECC wrote to ministers asking for an urgent meeting to be convened so the team at the centre could speak to the relevant officials.
Meetings are usually a good strategy for sorting matters out more quickly. Emails and letters can be clumsy forms of communication especially where there is time pressure. The iwi also wrote to LINZ asking for a reversal of its position to terminate the lease.
The urgent meeting happened on 26 February and it included officials from both LINZ and MoE. On the day of their urgent meeting I was busy in an ECC board meeting. At the end of my board meeting I got an emotional call from Wendy telling me that the centre was to be closed immediately due to suspected black mould. The suspected black mould was conveyed verbally by the LINZ team to the centre team in the meeting – it obviously came as a huge shock to the centre team.
Once revealed, the danger of black mould left no alternative other than closure. Black mould is a major health risk if spores get inhaled. I will come to the bit about “suspected” in a minute.
I felt angry about the way this information about there being black mould got conveyed to the centre staff. For one, I had no warning about it and neither did the centre. It is a bit like getting extremely bad news unexpectedly – maybe you shouldn’t give advance notice of the extremely bad news but surely you can send warning signals to the other party by saying things like – please ensure you bring a support person – or two. Or – “oh, you are not bringing so-and-so - maybe you should? [i.e. hint, hint]. The fact MoE was at the meeting might have been enough support from LINZ’s perspective. We will never know. The outcome is that a meeting that was supposed to find a solution to a too-brief termination notice period instead brought about a massive shock – sudden closure on 28 February.
Only two days prior, ECC and the team at Waitara were optimistic about the urgent meeting as a way of extending the notice period. This couldn’t have been further from officials’ intentions.
I should add that the centre had complained to LINZ in 2017 that being on a month-by-month lease wasn’t fair or leaving them nearly enough time to relocate should LINZ ever seek to terminate.
On hearing of the sudden closure, ECC wrote again directly to Minister Penk (minister for LINZ). ECC subsequently received messages from the Head of Crown property at LINZ and we took numerous calls from minister Penk’s office. They seemed to be taking it seriously.
Unfortunately, once your centre is closed – as happened suddenly on 28 Feb, it’s very difficult to get it reopened. I think the word “difficult” understates a largely “impossible” process to do in short timeframes. We rely on MoE to this day to help facilitate the necessary licences that are keeping the centre temporarily alive.
Yet the team at Waitara were able to negotiate a temporary arrangement first with the nearby Playcentre. They decamped ECE services for children from the LINZ-leased centre but continued to operate their administration out of the LINZ building. The Waitara team, its teachers and support crew worked around the clock to set things up. I visited during that period and it was hugely helpful to see other providers helping out; and secondly they moved a few weeks later to their (current) temporary site at the North Taranaki Sports & Recreational Centre. The community has bound itself in support round the Waitara centre.
I convened a community meeting for the Waitara centre. There was a huge turnout, with more than one hundred people. I got quite a few curly questions. The shock among the community was further reinforcement to me that LINZ got this one wrong and that the centre was essential to this community. Definitely there was a strong fighting spirit here. Politicians should know to tread carefully when their departments kick up this kind of happy community – for whatever reason.
It is critical information to know what the actual evidence of black mould was. Had it been tested for? If there was a suspicion of black mould, what was the suspicion based on and how strong? Was there not a way to treat or mitigate the health risks associated? All of our questions were effectively skipped over by forcing an immediate closure.
We OIA’d the test that the termination notice was based on. We were told it would not be ready in time for the community meeting. LINZ also refused to send any official to the community meeting. This is partly the reason why I got a hard time – I had to convey what little information we knew to the community. There was frustration and anger at the lack of information. Media covered the matter closely with extremely good reporting from Robin Martin (RNZ). I should mention the advocacy from local MP, David MacLeod, which I think helped Minister Penk to ensure LINZ was compassionate around suspending the rent after the closure.
It wasn’t until March 2025 that we found out by OIA that the mould of concern was visibly present in detailed property reports and photographs dating back to 2019. If I’d known that in February, the way we approached the media side of things could have been very different. There really was plenty of evidence to show that no new mould had materialised in the last six years, but the mould that existed in 2019 may have become more established in that time.
The case highlights the incredible firepower of ECC – when a centre is in extreme trouble ECC can be very helpful. We contacted the local public health authority and ensured information and guidance was provided for families and staff about the health risks associated with black mould. Everyone treated the potential risk to health and safety seriously.
We engaged an expert company in mould assessment, using our wide networks of contacts. This helped to explain how LINZ had been able to terminate the lease on suspicion of black mould – there is no established industry standard on testing for black mould. Essentially, if you have water damage or there is visible mould then it could be black mould. That’s all it takes.
We embarked on awareness raising across our membership – to stop others falling into the same trap. That is one of the reasons why we are telling the story today in Swings & Roundabouts – so everyone who reads our magazine knows. Definitely fix leaky windows and roofs promptly, and take an industrial-level cleaning approach to visible mould and its precursors (dampness). And think carefully about self-report yourself to LINZ (if they’re your landlord they’ll do nothing about it) or to MoE (they are still very good at closing centres down with any sniff of a risk).
You might be thinking that due to the flimsy mould evidence, this closure should have been avoided? Unfortunately the MoE’s wide discretion and the Waitara centre’s strong commitment to the safety of their mokopuna and teachers means they were always going to cooperate with the closure pathway. If I got to do this one again I’d do it differently. We would have strongly objected to the proposal to close the LINZ-leased site. We have to remember how quickly it all happened. I suspect the Waitara team would have done it differently too.
Another important fact is that the LINZ site wasn’t going to be suitable forever. Plans did need to be made for a new centre. This didn’t have to be achieved in the manner LINZ did it. While centre-poor the Waitara team is community rich, and we’re calling for more supporters to come forward, especially funders.
A permanent site has been located now and the Waitara centre team are in the process of raising the required capital to complete the work and building. So today ECC is encouraging funders to make contact with the subcommittee working on the new centre and individuals can contribute towards the planning process costs through this Givealittle page:
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/waitara-childcare-centre-needs-your-help
This article was originally published in the annual Swings & Roundabouts magazine in August 2025. Click here to view the full magazine.
