Pause cathedral levy, say residents

Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Pause the city’s annual levy to the cathedral, say 78% of residents.

The Christ Church Cathedral levy should be paused, say three-quarters of submitters on Christchurch city’s annual plan.

The levy, which costs the average household $6.52 a year, should be paused said 78% of 485 submitters to the Christchurch City Council’s annual plan.

Three quarters of submitters on Christchurch city’s annual plan wanted the Air Force Museum to be given requested funding of $5 million.

However, three-quarters of the 629 people who submitted on the Air Force museum wanted the council to grant it the $5 million it has requested for a new building to store historic aircraft.

Views were tightly divided on the value of the city’s cycle lanes with 41 submitters saying they did not want spending reduced, while 40 said they did.

Views about Christchurch’s cycleways were divided. (File photo)

More broadly, an invitation for residents to offer cost-cutting ideas to the city council seemingly failed.

City councillors heard at an annual plan workshop on Monday that, on average, for every service a submitter said they could do without, there were two services they valued most.

These requests to keep or cut often conflicted with each other, according to a council analyst, who said some of the 1048 submitters refused to offer an opinion because they understood not everyone valued the same things.

Libraries, parks and solid waste services emerged as some of the most valued.

Of the less beloved services, 14 submitters said they could do without heritage services where just one said they valued heritage the most highly. Eight people said they could do without social housing - twice as many as those who said they valued it most.

Council analyst Aimee Martin said the results reinforced what the council had known for some time - opinions were diverse.

What was new in this annual plan was an explicit invitation for submitters to suggest ways the council could save money. Only 154 submitters did so.

Christchurch City Councilor Aaron Keown led a flier drop in Harewood encouraging people to have their say.

“Many submitters told us of the need to rein in wasteful spending, but when presented with the opportunity to tell us what, few were able to pinpoint specific examples,” Martin said.

Bede Carran, council’s chief financial officer, said suggestions like reviewing staff salary and contractor spend were things the council already did on a regular basis.

The draft annual plan attracted mainly older residents: one in four (27%) were aged 65 or older, and 16% were aged 50-64. One-third of submitters did not give their age.

Some 20% of all submitters came from Harewood. The next most active ward was Papanui, making up 9% of total submissions.

Council staff attributed this to the relevancy of topics covered in the annual plan - especially the contentious Wheels to Wings Cycleway - and a flier drop in Harewood encouraging people to have their say, led by councillor Aaron Keown and community board member Jason Middlemiss.

The cycleway attracted 369 submissions and a strong general opposition, Martin said, though the majority did not clearly state a yes or no to the plan as-is. Instead 67% called for the council to look at alternatives, leaving 7% explicitly opposing it and 17% supporting a staged approach to the project.

City councillors will meet with staff again on Thursday to further discuss how feedback will be incorporated into the plan and what the implications on rates rises will be.