The Star: October 08, 2020

Thursday October 8 2020 The Star
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Killer of pedestrian gets more time in jail
THE GANG associate who ran down
a pedestrian in New Brighton has
been sentenced to more jail time.
Liam Teau Ariki Strickland (right),
22, was sentenced to eight months’
imprisonment in the district court
yesterday on two charges of reckless
driving, three charges of driving
Lizards blow out budget
for council project
• By Louis Day
AN ADDITIONAL $611,000
of ratepayer money had to be
spent on a city council project
after endangered lizards were
discovered at a council work site.
City council contractors were
working towards transforming
an old gravel pit into a stormwater
basin to reduce flooding, link
two headwaters together and
create a green
corridor in the
area when they
came across
the endangered
lizards.
It was originally
planned
David
Adamson
to “spray and
clear” the site
but once the
lizards were found contractors
had to begin to “scrape” the site
with a person working in front of
a digger, hand capturing lizards
that were discovered.
Once the lizards were captured,
the site was redesigned to
provide a suitable home for the
endangered reptiles.
This blew out the budget of the
project by $611,000 on Department
of Conservation approvals,
construction contract costs, staff
time, herpetologist and habitat
establishment costs. The entire
project is expected to cost $4.8
million.
The location of the site and
type of lizard present at it has
been kept secret to minimise the
possibility of the lizards being
while disqualified, failing to stop for
police, two charges of methamphetamine
possession, receiving stolen
property, and breaching community
work.
He is currently serving nine years
and four months after killing pedestrian
Dean Michael Amies, 22, at the
RELOCATION: About 2700 lizards had to be rehomed at a cost of $611,000 to allow for
council works to go ahead.
PHOTO: DOC
poached.
“There have been a number
of incidences where locations
here in Canterbury have been
publicised and animals have
then been found on the internet
for sale,” city council general
manager of city services David
Adamson said.
He said about 2700 lizards
were captured and relocated.
“Due to lizard’s dormant nature
in colder weather, the lizard
count was only viable if the
temperature was over 19 deg C.
The weather therefore meant that
intersection of Hawke St and Shaw
Ave in a stolen car in August last year.
Strickland was under the influence
of methamphetamine and fleeing
police when he hit Amies.
Yesterday’s sentencing related to
crimes in December 2018 and January
2019.
the trapping took some time,
which led to an extension of the
contract, and associated costs for
this delay,” he said.
Adamson said all of New
Zealand’s indigenous lizards are
both endangered and “absolutely
protected” under the Wildlife
Act meaning it is illegal to cause
habitat loss or deliberately disturb
native lizards.
Earlier this week, work to
repair Wellington’s Ngaio Gorge
slip had to be rescheduled so
that sleepy lizards could be rehomed.
Earlier this year, canned pears
were also used to lure native lizards
away from the Wellington
harbourside as construction on
new walking and biking tracks
were pursued.
Apart from the relocation of
lizards, additional costs to the
project in Christchurch were incurred
from delays to Covid-19,
contaminated land costs,
working around neighbouring
developers and a lack of suitable
topsoil on site. Adamson said the
extent of these costs were yet to
be realised.
NEWS 3
in brief
Art museum on track
to open in April
A new $16 million art museum
for Christchurch is expected to
open in April after construction
was delayed for three months
by the Covid-19 lockdown. The
Ravenscar House Museum on
Rolleston Ave was originally set
to be completed by 2018 at a cost
of $13m, but design issues and
the global pandemic added an
extra $3m to the construction
budget and postponed the grand
opening. The museum will house
a collection of 110 paintings from
the 19th-century to the present
day, started by Christchurch
couple Jim and Susan Wakefield
in the early 1990s. The museum
is funded by insurance proceeds
from their former home, also
called Ravenscar House, which
was destroyed in the Canterbury
earthquakes. They placed
ownership of the art collection
into the Ravenscar Trust, with
a plan to gift it to the city in the
future.
Serious injuries after
Lincoln Rd incident
A person was taken to hospital
with serious injuries after
an incident on Lincoln Rd
yesterday. Police were initially
called to reports a person had
been seen on the State Highway
76 overpass bridge above Lincoln
Rd at about noon. The road was
closed between Lyttelton St and
Whiteleigh Ave in Addington
after the incident. Lincoln Rd
reopened about 1pm.
Firefighters carry out
supermarket exercises
Firefighters have been carrying
out exercises at Christchurch
businesses over the last few
weeks to train for when
emergencies happen. The
majority have taken place at
Countdown supermarkets
and those involved have faced
scenarios including a fake
explosion and a fire in an air
conditioning unit. Supermarkets
are not evacuated during these
but multiple fire appliances
attend along with firefighters in
full gear.
Catherine
Chu
VOTE FOR YOUR FUTURE !
for Banks Peninsula
379 9920 | www.johnrhind.co.nz
E: catherine.chu@national.org.nz
FB: @CatherineChuNZ
P: 021 176 0985
Authorised by Catherine Chu, Level 2, 363 Colombo Street, Christchurch.