Families to get council apology
A civic apology will be made to families who lost loved ones in Canterbury’s February 2011 earthquake as part of commemorations for the ninth anniversary of the disaster.
The Christchurch City Council was criticised during investigations following the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, with then-mayor Sir Bob Parker apologising for the authority’s role in signing off the faulty CTV building in which 115 people died – including many Japanese language students. A delegation from Japan is coming to Christchurch for this year’s February 22 anniversary and it is understood they and the other victims’ families will be given a formal apology on behalf of the city.
The exact nature of the apology or what it will specifically be for is not year clear, and the council has been tight-lipped about any such event.
Councillors have been asked not to speak about it following an agreement between the authority and Mayor Lianne Dalziel until Dalziel has ‘‘engaged with all of the families’’, though it is unclear when that will happen.
‘‘Any associated events surrounding the 22 February commemoration with bereaved families is private,’’ a council spokeswoman said.
The council is not paying for any families to attend commemorations as part of this year’s anniversary.
The 2011 royal commission into the quakes heard the city council had been warned five years prior to the tragedy that it was playing ‘‘Russian roulette with its citizens’’ because of its policy on earthquake-prone buildings.
Architect Sir Miles Warren warned council in 2006 to examine more closely the dangers posed by unreinforced brick buildings in the central city.
In 2012, it emerged the council had been roundly criticised in an internal report over its handling of dangerous buildings in the September 2010 quake, with an overreliance on an overworked and under-resourced team to evaluate dangerous buildings.
Later that year, Parker apologised for ‘‘shortcomings’’ that had led to the council approving construction of the CTV building after the royal commission ruled it should never had been granted a building permit.
It also emerged that Gerald Shirtcliff, who supervised the building’s construction, had faked his engineering degree, while the building’s designer and engineer, David Harding, had insufficient experience.
After eight months of battling a rare and deadly disease, 34-year-old ka¯ka¯po¯ Margaret Maree is finally heading home.
She was one of 12 ka¯ka¯po¯ treated by Auckland Zoo after an outbreak of aspergillosis – a mould or fungus that infects the lungs – on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island.
Nearly 50 of the critically endangered birds were brought to the mainland from Whenua Hou, near Stewart Island, to be assessed after the outbreak last year. A total of 21 birds were diagnosed with the disease. Nine died, including three at Auckland Zoo.
On January 30, Margaret Maree had her seventh CT scan at