Wharf worker error behind scrub fire near Picton stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In a “Q & A” explainer released to the media, Port Marlborough said EcoWorld’s lease was entered into on January 11, 2011, for a 10-year period, and it did not have a right of renewal. The terms of the lease also required EcoWorld to remove any improvements to the land and reinstate that land at its expense when the lease expired. The lease was simply ending on the agreed terms, Port Marlborough said. “Mr Reuhman is alleging that Port Marlborough agreed to renew the lease or to a new one. That is not the case,” the statement said.
Stuff
Aquarium staff heartbroken after Port Marlborough confirms it won t extend their lease.
Picton aquarium staff stage sit-in to protest brutal takeover of building Newshub 12 hrs ago
Replay Video UP NEXT
Picton s aquarium has been ordered to close but its staff aren t going quietly, staging a sit-in to stop the building being taken over.
EcoWorld director John Reuhman says Port Marlborough will take over the building s lease from midnight on Thursday.
EcoWorld staff and members of the public plan to occupy EcoWorld’s building in a last-ditch attempt to save the aquarium, the animals and the jobs of its six employees. We are going to do an occupation to try to save it all. It s a crazy situation, says Rheuman.
Despite Port Marlborough offer to help EcoWorld clear out the building, Reuhman said the terms were “unreasonable”. Reuhman claimed he had filed proceeds in the High Court last Friday, and that EcoWorld should not be made to leave the building until a judge had addressed the proceedings. It followed from last week, when Reuhman and his team protested outside the Local Democracy Conference held in Blenheim.
BRYA INGRAM/STUFF
EcoWorld Aquarium & Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre manager Janelle White, left, and John Reuhman pictured outside the foreshore aquarium. “What we were delighted by was the response from the delegates outside of the ASB [theatre].”