Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger has ‘3am’ brainwave to fix the Cathedral - and the Square

Thursday, 12 March 2026

Mayor Phil Mauger suggests using half of a $28m budget to fix Cathedral Square on the Anglican cathedral.

Is he dreaming? Apparently not.

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger says he had a brainwave at 3am this morning on how to revamp Cathedral Square - and help get the Anglican cathedral fixed.

The city council is, this week, asking companies to express an interest in developing a new concept design for Cathedral Square, saying it has $28.5m in the budget to enact an approved design. This new work will focus on the middle of the square, which was last year described as a “wasteland” by a neighbouring building owner.

Cathedral Square has been described as a wasteland by a neighbouring building owner.

The council says the new design would build on the previous work done by now defunct rebuild agency Regenerate Christchurch, which spent about $1m developing a plan released in 2018 expected to cost $60m to $80m and feature a lattice-style overhead shelter, no through traffic and mixed paved and tree-studded green spaces.

Speaking to NewstalkZB on Thursday morning about the $28.5m Cathedral Square budget, Mauger said he felt that was “far too much” money for the central part of the square when other work had already been completed.

He said one of the concepts he’d seen was artificial grass to make it look greener.

When asked by the interviewer if the money would be better spent on the Christ Church Cathedral, which was holding the square up, Mauger called them a “mind reader” and revealed he’d had the same idea “this morning at about 3 o’clock”.

Mauger suggested some of the square budget - “we’ll say half of it” - could go towards restoring the Anglican cathedral “because they’re crying out for it” and because “we’ve got to get our [city] centre back”.

His comments come as former mayor Lianne Dalziel has gone public with her support to spend council money on restoring the ChristChurch Cathedral.

Eighteen months since halting its restoration project, Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd (CCTL) is focused only on the city council plugging the $40m to $45m funding gap to complete the first stage of work and in the meantime is not doing any “meaningful fundraising”.

The council has not set aside any further money for the cathedral but is consulting the public for its views.

Mauger said it made sense to use some of the square money for the cathedral, as it had already been budgeted.

When asked if he had the support of other councillors, Mauger said he’d “have to convince them, of course”.

The last Cathedral Square redesign was released in 2018 by the now defunct rebuild planning agency Regenerate Christchurch.

“But if there's a surplus in one area, right out the front of it, and it's the hurdle to stop the second bit happening, it makes common-sense to me that you divert some of that dough to get one thing finished.”

“I'm really keen on getting the square finished, the cathedral finished.”

The 2018 design would have cost between $60m and $80m.

At a briefing on Wednesday, some councillors also questioned why the square work was happening when there was still so much uncertainty surrounding the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild.

Work on the square since the earthquakes has focused on improving the outer edges with upgraded footpaths, paving and landscaping.

About $2.5 million of the square budget will be spent sprucing up a 170m-long footpath on the northern side of Worcester Blvd from the Square to Oxford Tce. The area has not been touched since the 2011 earthquakes.