‘Forgotten and neglected’

A green-zoned street in a largely abandoned quake-hit Christchurch suburb floods regularly during heavy rain. Resident Amanda Neil, pictured right, wants action.

An unsealed, flood-prone street in an earthquake-damaged Christchurch suburb has been ‘‘forgotten and neglected’’ by the city council, a resident says.

Part-time Anglican vicar and former school teacher Amanda Neil lives in Brooklands on the city’s northern outskirts, which is largely abandoned since being red-zoned after the 2011 quake.

Earlham St, where Neil lives, was one of the few to remain green-zoned and deemed suitable for people to live in. She moved into her house at the end of 2016, after purchasing the land in 2015.

The street is unsealed and does not have streetlights or stormwater drains, making it prone to flooding.

Neil said a major storm that ravaged the South Island in July

2017 left smelly, mosquitoinfested floodwater in the area for

17 months. She has sent emails, letters, posters, poems and photos to the council since July 2017, outlining her concerns and seeking answers. The community was ‘‘tired and weary of waiting for some positive action’’.

Residents will this week meet

with council officials and Regenerate Christchurch, a joint Crown-council rebuild agency.

Neil said the ‘‘long overdue’’ meeting was ‘‘the first effort the council have made to start conversations again’’.

She has tried to get the council’s attention since being evacuated from her home by fire crews during the 2017 storm.

Flooding caused her outdoor power box to explode, setting a hedge on fire.

Neil said the council pumped the floodwater on to an adjacent property without housing on it and it remained there for 17 months.

She continued to contact the council about the water, sending at least 10 emails throughout 2018. ‘‘I email a lot but when emails get no answer, I go in, in person, with hard copy stuff.’’

In September 2018, an email seen by The Press sent to the council’s then-chief executive, Karleen Edwards, asked for 200-300 metres of proper drainage, sealing, and street lighting in Earlham St.

A senior adviser to the chief executive responded to Neil’s email six months later, explaining there was no budget in the council’s long-term plan for the upgrades. Neil said council staff had visited the street in the past but no progress was made.

‘‘We have never seem them again and we never hear anything back, and it is almost like there is something going on that they don’t want us to know about,’’ she said.

First-term Coastal ward city councillor James Daniels, who visited the affected residents recently, believed the requests for drainage and street lights were reasonable and said having them was ‘‘common sense’’.

‘‘I have seen pictures of the state that [Earlham St] can get into, and of course that is a concern.’’ Daniels said he would be present at the meeting with council staff and hoped it would bring the residents ‘‘some more comfort and confidence’’.

‘‘... it is almost like there is something going on that they don’t want us to know about.’’

Amanda Neil