The Star: April 18, 2019

The Star Thursday April 18 2019
4
NEWS
Second man
charged over
shooting
A SECOND man has been
charged with the murder of
King Cobras gang member Luke
Riddell.
The 28-year-old was shot and
killed at Charring Cross in the
Selwyn District in October.
Daniel Gary French, 35 appeared
in the district court yesterday
and was charged with murder,
along with Alistair Cochrane, 25.
Crown prosecutor Will Taffs
sought for an application for the
two men’s murder charges to be
heard at the same trial, planned
for February next year.
French was arrested on firearms
charges a few days after the incident
and has been held in custody
since. He was charged as the
principal offender and a party to
the murder of Mr Riddell and has
not yet made a plea.
Cochrane denies the murder
charge and will appear again in
the High Court on May 2, for a
call-over hearing.
A courtroom brawl broke
out at an earlier appearance for
French, when gang members
who were seated in the public
gallery charged the dock where
he was standing. Judge O’Driscoll
remanded French in custody to
appear again on May 10.
Mr Riddell was shot at a
property in Grange Rd.
New library tops half million mark
CHRISTCHURCH’S new public
library Tūranga has had nearly
550,000 visitors in the six months
since it opened.
Tūranga manager Chris Hay
said residents have welcomed the
library and it has already become
a busy space in the heart of the
city.
“It almost feels like we’ve been
open longer than six months
because we’re so much a part of
the landscape of the central city
for many residents. People come
here for different reasons but
they all seem to find it a useful,
enjoyable place to be.
“Drawing people back into the
central city was a key aim for this
project and based on the first six
months, Tūranga is achieving
that goal. The community floor,
Hapori, on level 1, has been particularly
popular with families.”
Foot traffic numbers show
548,922 people explored the
library in its first six months of
operation, an average of 2754
each day. The busiest day so far
was on October 20, when 5254
people checked out the new
building.
The library’s Discovery Wall
on the ground floor which allows
users to swipe through a virtual
world of photos, videos and information,
has been a popular
attraction used for 13.9 million
individual touches and to send
10,000 postcards in the past six
news online at www.star.kiwi
months.
There have been more than
238,000 items issued at Tūranga
since it opened its doors.
The $92 million five-level
centre was described by Mayor
Lianne Dalziel as marking the
return of the city’s “cultural
and community heart” when it
opened on October 12.
As well as housing more than
180,000 items, Tūranga has a
music studio, video editing suite,
3D printer, robotics, exhibition
spaces, meeting rooms, a café,
Spark Place, the Innovation
Zone, the TSB Space function
room and a children’s play area.
There are also study rooms, quiet
spaces and areas for reading.
The library is home to Māori,
Pasifika and world languages
collections as well as specialist
staff to reflect and serve the
needs of Christchurch’s diverse
communities. A state-of-the art
archives store, teaching space
and research room ensure people
have secure access to the library’s
fragile and rare items.
The former central library was
demolished after the February
22, 2011, earthquake. It was the
largest and busiest library in the
South Island with nearly one
million visitors each year.
An innovative structural
design for Tūranga has won a
BUSY:
About
2754
people visit
Turanga
each day,
including
6-yearold
Ruby
Mckey
and her
granddad
John Milne.
leading seismic resilience award.
Lewis Bradford Consulting
Engineers – working in
conjunction with site owner the
city council – has won the New
Zealand Society of Earthquake
Engineering’s 2019 seismic
resilience award for design to
achieve low damage.
It is the only award to specifically
recognise the structural
design of a building.
The central library has a dual
seismic resisting system with
hybrid concrete shear walls that
rock to isolate the building from
peak earthquake. The steel frame
around the building also has
rocking connections at the base.