Cathedral ‘could have vermin and razor wire’
Rats, pigeons and razor wire is what the Christ Church Cathedral could become known for – and it’ll be the city council’s problem one way or another, according to cathedral rebuild project leaders.
However, Christchurch city councillors asked pointed questions of the people at the heart of the project, who eventually admitted that even if they found $30 million, the project may still be mothballed in 2025.
Mark Stewart, chairperson of Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCRL), painted a dire picture of the project at a public briefing to the council yesterday.
He mentioned the possibility of vermin and razor wire around the cathedral multiple times should the project be mothballed, and if CCRL didn’t find a lifeline soon, “then we’re going to fire everyone”.
He was incredulous at how much money the council spent on projects like Te Pae convention centre and Te Kaha stadium, “yet we can’t get our act together as a city for the number one icon of our city”.
Asked by Councillor Yani Johanson if CCRL would consider becoming a joint owner of the cathedral with other parties in exchange for financial support – such as the Catholic Church – Bishop Peter Carrell said it would be too difficult, because the completed project needed to be a living Anglican cathedral.
The briefing to councillors was the first formal meeting between the groups since CCRL announced on April 6 it will abandon the project unless it finds $30m by its August board meeting. That figure is expected to fund the remainder of crucial strengthening work, which would be done by late 2025.
Councillor Sara Templeton questioned where the rest of the $114m funding shortfall would be found.
Stewart conceded he couldn’t guarantee that CCRL would have the funding to continue after strengthening work was done, but said it would much prefer to mothball the project then than now.
Although at one point Stewart said he never expected private philanthropy to close the $50m funding gap the project had from the start, he later emphasised the importance of donations from “high net worth individuals”, and said he needed guaranteed support to convince them to get on board. He had a six-week trip to the United Kingdom scheduled to do “nothing but trying to generate income”.
He said he wasn’t asking for a certain amount of money, because “if I ask you for money, it’ll be a no”, but if the council didn’t help, the cathedral would become its expensive problem in the future.
Stewart wanted the council, the Anglican Church, central government and other stakeholders to get together to decide what to do, because once CCRL ran out of money, that was it.
He said public opinion was on its side, and it had a recent survey to prove this. Councillor Victoria Henstock had to ask twice when the survey was done, after Stewart appeared to deflect.
CCRL sent The Press a report of the survey results, dated February 2022. The 401 respondents don’t appear to have been directly asked if the project was worth the cost. Some 62% said they wanted the cathedral back, but 62% also said the Anglican Church should pay for any shortfall.
Only 44% thought the Christchurch community should be involved in additional fundraising.
Stewart acknowledged that CCRL could have been a part of long-term plan discussions (the best avenue for city-wide consultation and allocating ratepayer money), but it didn’t want wider public consultation because it believed in “quality not quantity”, and thought councillors were the right leaders to make a decision.
He said CCRL decided to possibly mothball the project only days before announcing it publicly.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), which managed central government’s involvement in the project until 2021, said it was first told on March 26 that the project may be mothballed. CCRL has been trying to arrange a meeting with Finance Minister Nicola Willis since January 15 with the help of the DPMC. Stewart said that meeting was scheduled for May.