Empowered Christchurch
Press release 21 March 2017
For immediate publication:
Christchurch City Council has no answers
The current Christchurch City Council regime started out in 2014 with great hopes for a sea change in its internal
culture and amid promises of transparency and accountability from the new Mayor, Lianne Dalziel. Unfortunately, after a
string of revelations over the last year, the Council has become mired in controversy. The many stories include
tampering with flood maps to insert fictitious stop banks; the widespread application of existing use rights; the issue
of building consents allowing houses in high flood hazard management areas (HFHMAs) to be built more than half a metre
below the Building Act minimum; and the list goes on and on. We attach a letter sent by Empowered Christchurch to Mayor
Lianne Dalziel on 15 February 2017 asking for responses on some of these issues. Regrettably, the Council's latest
strategy appears to be to ignore any and all criticism: we have not had the courtesy of an acknowledgement, let alone a
reply to our letter.