Plan to attract shoppers to central city dumped

A ratepayer-funded plan to attract shoppers to central Christchurch has been dumped after mayor Lianne Dalziel branded it inadequate and councillors said it left them feeling ‘‘cold’’.

The $280,000 winter package, put together by council staff and the city’s development and tourism agency Christ church NZ, had proposed to spend $130,000 on a marketing campaign, $80,000 on small scale events and another $70,000 to keep employing an ‘‘activation co-ordinator’’ for a year from July.

The plan was heavily criticised by the council at a meeting yesterday and the council ended up ditching the package.

Cr Raf Manji said there had been a clear ‘‘no’’ from councillors to the package because it did not solve the problem.

‘‘What worries me is we’re constantly micro-managing the central city.

‘‘The council does not own the central city. Our job is to provide the basic infrastructure, deliver the anchor projects and get out of the way of the private and community sector to let them get on and do stuff.

‘‘Just as we ask the Crown to get out of our face in the central city, we need to pull back a little bit and not be seen as the place to go every time someone needs money for an idea.’’

Manji said the problem was that residential development in the central city had not happened yet and that was how the city was going to become sustainable.

Cr Vicki Buck said she did not think the proposal was a good one.

‘‘When I read this I wanted to get excited about it . . . it left me completely cold.’’

Cr Jamie Gough said the issues and barriers being faced in the central city were the lack of residents and residential development, cost of land, construction, consenting and compliance, competition from the suburbs and car parking.

‘‘Lack of a marketing campaign and another full-time employee does not feature on this list and that doesn’t surprise me.’’

Cr Glenn Livingstone said the council had already invested close to $100 million in the city with Tu¯ ranga, the central library, and several other developments had also opened since last winter including the Hoyts complex.

Dalziel said she did not want to send out a message that the council was prepared to set aside $280,000 of ratepayers’ money to do something that was already being done by Christ church NZ and other agencies.

The council had ended up with a city winter package that was just ‘‘not adequate’’, she said.

Earlier in the meeting, public relations consultant David Lynch said the winter package was a ‘‘knee-jerk and ad hoc reaction’’.

‘‘It strikes me that the authors don’t understand or might be in denial over the realities of the actual challenges and impediments confronting the bars, restaurant and retail.’’