The Star: November 03, 2016

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Thursday November 3 2016 15
News
Outlook brighter for red zoners
• By Gabrielle Stuart
THE FUTURE is looking
brighter for 57 property owners
who have opted to stay in the red
zone.
They have lived for six years
under the threat of being forced
to leave their homes if the
Government chose to use its
extraordinary powers.
But the new agency responsible
for the future of the red zone,
Regenerate Christchurch, seems
to be taking a softly, softly approach
and is promising to give
owners “meaningful participation”
in the planning process.
Chief executive Ivan Iafeta
said it was too early to say what
might feature in the plan for
each area.
But he said many of the families
living in the red zone had
already been visited in an effort
to keep them informed, and that
would continue.
“We recognise that when we
are talking about the residential
red zone, we are talking about
areas immediately around
people’s homes. So we are very
conscious of how that might
affect them and we recognise the
need to be respectful of them
throughout the process.”
Brooklands red zone resident
Lesley Griffiths said he had not
been visited, but was hopeful
the relationship with Regenerate
Christchurch could be a positive
one.
When the red zone was
managed by the Canterbury
Earthquake Recovery Authority,
he said he had received dozens of
calls trying to “coerce” him into
accepting a Government offer
and moving.
“They just about drove us nuts
calling I don’t know how many
times,” he said.
After the deadline had passed,
he said he heard nothing
more, although the threat that
Government powers might be
used to force them to move had
hung over their heads, he said.
He had chosen to stay in the
red zone, rather than moving,
because he loved the area where
his family had lived for 58 years,
he said.
He said the section was large
and he would not be able to
afford anything similar if he
SETTLED:
Les Griffiths
now has
uninterrupted
sea views
from his
red-zoned
Brooklands
property,
where he has
lived for 58
years, and
has no plans
to move.
PHOTO:
GEOFF
SLOAN
moved.
“Our site overlooks the
Brooklands Lagoon for a start,
I can see out to sea. We would
be stuck living in a subdivision
where all the view you’ve got is
of your neighbour’s fence,” he
said.
He said he would like to
see the red zone land become
space that could be used by the
community, but he had no plans
to move himself.
“I’d take some shifting,” he
said.
Contamination
risk forces
construction
of new well
• By Bridget Rutherford
A NEW $7.4 million pump station
will be built in Harewood to
replace a shallow well at risk of
contamination.
The city council will build the
pump station on the site of its
Harewood Nursery on Gardiners
Rd, with work hoped to begin in
February.
It will replace the previous Harewood
Pump Station, which would
be decommissioned as part of the
work. It was less than 26m deep,
taking water from an unconfined
aquifer, which put it at risk of contamination.
The new pump station would
also provide for growth in the
north-west of the city, specifically
the Upper Styx residential greenfield
development area.
City council three waters and
waste planning and delivery
manager John Moore said the city
council had an agreement with the
Ministry of Health to decommission
its shallow wells in the northwest
of the city by June 30, 2018.
The new pump station will be
completed by then.
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