Future of New Brighton mall a key issue for candidates

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

A revitalised mall, new housing and climate change concerns are all issues which the candidate who becomes Christchurch’s Coastal ward councillor will have to grapple with.

The Coastal ward is set to be one of five battleground wards in this year’s election alongside the Riccarton, Innes, Heathcote, and Central wards.

Three people are standing for the Coastal ward, but perhaps the race to watch is the one between incumbent Celeste Donovan, 45, and community board member Jo Zervos, 58.

The pair are tireless advocates for their community and come from the grassroots of their voting base.

Donovan always looks at issues through a Coastal lens around the council table, and before being first elected in a by-election in 2021 was chair of the New Brighton Residents’ Association.

She strongly advocated this term for the Pages Rd bridge to be replaced.

Zervos has been a community board member since 2019 and has been an aqua aerobics instructor at the city council’s pools for 32 years.

She first hit the headlines when campaigning to keep QEII pool in the east, after the original was demolished following the earthquakes. She is a graffiti programme volunteer, logging more than 2000 incidents of tagging with the council’s graffiti removal team. Her social media is also full of her reporting rubbish, weeds, flooding, damaged footpaths and other areas where maintenance is lacking.

The third candidate is Taraia Brown, 50. She is advocating for more affordable homes and cost of living relief. She is a consultant with more than 20 years public sector leadership experience.

All three are running as independents, but Brown says she was affiliated with the Labour Party between 2022 and 2024, and Donovan worked for the Green Party in a policy and community outreach role from 2014 to 2016.

The ward will have to consider how it adapts to climate change as the council works through coastal hazard adaptation plans for parts of the city.

When asked in Press survey how important climate change action will be in their decision-making, Donovan ranked it nine out of 10. Zervos rated it at three and Brown gave it an eight.

The continued revitalisation of New Brighton is also likely to be an issue this term.

The suburb has been languishing for decades, and even before the earthquakes there were empty shops, with shopper numbers declining.

The earthquake accelerated that decline, but it also eventually led to efforts to revitalise. A new playground was built, then the hot pools. New housing is also going up at pace, with more than 400 attached homes built or planned in New Brighton and North Beach post-earthquake.

Things are changing in New Brighton Mall too. A property investor has bought 12 properties there with plans to redevelop them, and work has begun on developing a new village green.

The council has bought land to create a new north-south corridor sheltered from the easterly, but this work is being held up by absent landowners.

Getting action on those land-banking property owners is another issue that needs tackling.

Freedom camping has been an ongoing issue and one that Donovan has worked hard to resolve.

Coastal facts

Candidates: Celeste Donovan, Jo Zervos and Taraia Brown.

Location: From Southshore Spit to Waimakariri River, including New Brighton, Waimairi Beach, Parklands and Spencerville.

Population: 25,900

Median age: 40

Median household income: $86,500