Halt to demolition called for in Christchurch

Christchurch City Council is seeking a moratorium on further demolition of heritage-listed buildings in the earthquake-devastated New Zealand city. The council's community recreation and culture committee recently voted, by three to two, to write to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) chief executive Roger Sutton and Canterbury Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee to ask for an immediate halt on such demolitions pending the approval of a heritage recovery programme. According to reports, 37% of the listed heritage buildings in central Christchurch have already been brought down (113 out of 308 structures).

According to reports in The Press, a Christchurch newspaper, committee chairman Yani Johanson is worried that CERA did not have a long-term strategy for retaining Christchurch's heritage and had been too quick to pull buildings down.