Stone returned to ECan
A Waimakariri River stone that formed part of protest action in support of Environment Canterbury has been returned to ECan in protest against it.
Half a dozen protesters watched yesterday morning as the cairn in Cathedral Square was opened and a boulder removed, to be given back to ECan chairman Steve Lowndes.
Two boulders from the Hurunui River replaced it, handed over by 10-year-old Charlie Mahon and 9-year-old Percy Dobson.
The removed stone was taken to ECan’s Christchurch headquarters but Lowndes was not there to receive it.
The Cathedral Square cairn was filled with boulders in June 2010 as hundreds gathered to demonstrate about water management and the sacking of democratically elected ECan councillors by the then National government.
The original intention was for the cairn to be disassembled when democracy was returned to the ECan council table.
But Christchurch man Kyle Sutherland said that would not now happen, because the Local Government Commission’s decision last week to have two regional councillors from South Canterbury based on population was ‘‘anything but democratic’’.
Sutherland, who presented at the recent commission hearings, said there was nothing democratic about the fact that his vote, as an urban dweller, would be ‘‘worth 0.59 to one of theirs’’.
‘‘Having 13 councillors would be far more democratic than having 14.
‘‘Lowndes stated in his first Press interview that he helped build the cairn, a monument we created to mark the loss of democracy in Canterbury. He said that he was determined such a thing should not happen again.
‘‘Well, it has. By determining that the votes of any one particular group of people should be worth more than any other is an affront to any claimed democracy.
‘‘In the meantime, we are returning Mr Lowndes’ stone to him.’’
Lowndes told The Press that when he first heard the boulder had come back, he had ‘‘no idea it was about representation’’.
‘‘It’s all a bit silly, it seems to me. People seem to have got the wrong end of the stick.
‘‘We had suggested originally for one representative for South Canterbury, but then listened to all the submissions. We ran an exemplary process.
‘‘The only reason they got two is because that is what we heard from the community down there. All the mayors came up to present their submissions.
‘‘Anyway, it’s water under the bridge. It’s done.’’