31 Jul 2014

Council documents found on street

8:50 pm on 31 July 2014

The Christchurch City Council says it is aware of a privacy breach where parking enforcement documents were found blowing out from an unsecured storage unit.

Council documents at the damaged building.

Council documents at the building. They were also found in a rubbish bin on Cashel Street. Photo: RNZ / Jemma Brackebush

A member of the public, who did not want to be named, alerted Radio New Zealand to the documents flying from the seventh floor of the earthquake-damaged Lichfield Street car park building on Thursday afternoon.

The person also handed over a bag of the documents to Radio New Zealand. They included traffic infringement notices containing names, dates of birth and addresses.

When Radio New Zealand went to the building, windows on the seventh floor were open; and more than 20 documents were collected from outside the building.

The council's director of council facilities and infrastructure, David Adamson, said on Thursday that staff have found four cardboard boxes full of documents on the building's roof.

Mr Adamson said the council has notified the Privacy Commission of a privacy breach.

Extra security is being organised until an access and removal plan is put in place.

The car park building on Lichfield Street.

The car park building on Lichfield Street. Photo: RNZ / Jemma Brackebush