EDITORIAL: No wonder Rangitāne has reservations about taking on the old Palmerston North police station.

From the outside, the general decay is obvious from the boarded-up windows and faded front that doesn't seem in good enough condition for even pigeons to nest.

For good measure, its woes include a toxic mould infestation and collapsed floors and ceilings.

It is part of Rangitāne o Manawatū's Treaty of Waitangi settlement and the iwi has plans to develop the site, but is understandably worried about taking possession of a dilapidated dive.

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The simple solution might be to tear the building down, except the facade, which has heritage status and is protected.

MURRAY WILSON/STUFF Palmerston North's old police station has a toxic mould infestation and collapsed ceilings and floors.

Police moved across the road in 2005 and the 80-year-old station is in the hands of the Crown landbank, run by Land Information NZ.

Property no longer needed by the Crown moves to the landbank, where it often lies for years while Treaty settlements are negotiated.

Land Information protests it does its best to maintain the property, but its hands are tied because of funding.

A Government agency would never put it like that, instead relying on passive language: "As with other Crown properties, [Land Information] takes all reasonable steps to maintain and secure landbank sites. [That's] balanced against the need to manage and prioritise funding appropriately across our entire property portfolio," says Jerome Sheppard, its deputy chief executive.

Land Information seems to be taking one for the team in the game of pass the parcel to avoid responsibility.

Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-Galloway said Land Information Minister Eugiene Sage is the minister we should talk to.

Sage punted questions back to Land Information.

Sheppard could say no more than that Land Information receives budget increases "as appropriate" to help manage the 940 landbank properties around New Zealand.

The Palmerston North police station is, of course, not the only decrepit structure on the landbank books.

But a prominent building in a provincial city centre, crumbling for all to see, is more of a problem than an anonymous structure dwarfed by concrete in a big centre.

Seeing such decay does nothing to allay concerns about regional New Zealand getting left behind, something a smart suit-wearing Wellington office worker likely has no grasp of.

Of course, it's impossible to keep every empty building looking pristine. But it's not fair on iwi like Rangitāne, or residents of towns and cities who face daily visual pollution, to shrug and plead poverty.

Some part of the monolith we call the Crown must loosen the purse strings to enable landbanked buildings to live. It's about time the music stopped on the game of pass the parcel.