Councillor calls for cathedral levy to be spent on reducing rates increase

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Christ Church Cathedral is being mothballed following a budget blowout.

Millions of dollars collected from ratepayers to help rebuild the Christ Church Cathedral can be spent on reducing the city’s rates burden, councillors have been told.

However, a call from councillor Andrei Moore to investigate the issue further ended in a split vote.

The Christchurch City Council met all day on Tuesday to decide what to include in its one-year budget, the 2025-26 draft annual plan.

The Wings to Wheels cycleway down Harewood Rd will likely be delayed again, while a cycleway in Simeon St in Barrington and another outside Te Aratai College in Linwood received councillor support.

The draft plan will not be approved for public consultation until February and final budget decisions will not happen until June, however, Tuesday’s decisions by councillors provide an insight into their views on various projects and issues.

Councillors had previously believed the money collected from ratepayers for the cathedral rebuild had to be spent on heritage projects if it was not spent on the rebuild.

However, staff said on Tuesday, according to recent legal advice, that as long as the council consulted and was transparent, the money could be repurposed.

City councillor Andrei Moore wants the $5m collected by the council for the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild, to be spent reducing rates instead.

Each rate-paying household has contributed $6.52 a year since 2018 to pay for the council’s $10m contribution toward the cathedral’s restoration. The levy was due to stop by 2028.

Some $3m has already been paid out and the council has $5m collecting interest.

Moore wanted that $5m to be spent on reducing the city’s rates increase, since the cathedral is being mothballed indefinitely following an escalation in rebuild costs.

The rates increase for the 2025-26 year is sitting at 8.93%.

Moore said it seemed like the right time to check in and see what ratepayers wanted the council to do with the money collected.

“It is public money, we should ask the public.”

Councillor Victoria Henstock wanted to know if Moore was across the “politically divisive” history of the cathedral levy, because he was probably only a “teenager at the time”.

Moore said he was not too young to know the history of the earthquakes and the levy.

Henstock later apologised to Moore, and sent a copy of her written apology to The Press.

The Wheels to Wings cycleway down Harewood Road is likely to be delayed.

She said she was seeking to get across the historical complexity of the issue, but “missed the mark entirely and I apologise for my remarks”.

The council ended up deciding to include in the draft annual plan, a proposal to stop the levy for the remaining three years.

Councillor Aaron Keown said he was OK with putting the levy on hold, but to spend the $5m on reducing the rates increase, was essentially reneging on a deal with the ratepayers.

The draft plan will also include a proposal to delay the Wheels to Wings cycleway and go ahead with signals at the Breens/Gardiners/Harewood intersection and outside Harewood School. It would also link up the Northern Line and Nor’West Arc cycle routes. This would cost $5m, compared to the $28.5m cost to complete the entire project.

The vote to delay was won 9-8.

However, the council decided to include $3.5m to build a cycleway on Aldwins Rd outside Te Aratai College.

Councillor Sara Templeton encouraged her fellow councillors to support the project’s inclusion in the draft plan.

She said students were forced to bike down a 60kph, four-lane road with no space between parked cars and traffic.

The project was paused when the Government withdrew funding and not long after that decision a student was hit, Templeton said.

“A separated cycleway is really needed in this area. It’s important we get it done.”

The project would have less than a 0.005% rates impact next year.

Councillors Kelly Barber, James Gough, Sam MacDonald and Aaron Keown did not want any additional budget added in 2025/26 for the Te Aratai cycleway.

A cycleway down Simeon St in Barrington would also go ahead at a cost of $750,000.

Councillors to vote against requesting staff advice about using the cathedral money to reduce the rates increase were: Mayor Phil Mauger, Mark Peters, Melanie Coker, Pauline Cotter, Victoria Henstock, Aaron Keown, Kelly Barber, and Jake McLellan.

Those who voted for: Tyrone Fields, Sara Templeton, Tyla Harrison-Hunt, Tim Scandrett, Celeste Donovan, Andrei Moore, Yani Johanson, Sam MacDonald. James Gough was absent for the vote.