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Graffiti across Christchurch will be “mapped and tracked” using innovative technology to help identify offenders and cut costs to ratepayers. The Smart Christchurch Graffiti Recognition trial , which will begin shortly, will track graffiti activity using data from the public and contractors to help curb building damage and identify repeat offenders to Police. It will…
Christchurch Hospital is getting a new parking building. Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced that the Crown has brokered a solution to the long-standing parking problems around Christchurch Hospital. In partnership with Ngāi Tahu Property, it is going to build a new 450-space parking building on land between St Asaph Street and…
Concept designs for Hornby’s new $37.5 million community centre have been revealed. The multi-use facility, which will be built on the east side of Kyle Park, includes a library, a lane pool, learn-to-swim pool, a toddlers’ wet play area, spa pool and a customer service area. The Waipuna/Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board will consider the centre designs…
Christchurch’s bus fleet is changing colour. Environment Canterbury (ECan), which is in charge of public transport in Christchurch, has unveiled a new teal coloured livery for all city buses other than the Orbiter. The change in livery follows research showing general awareness of Christchurch’s public transport offering is at times unclear. “Get more people using…
Next month’s WORD Christchurch Spring Festival will be a celebration of New Zealand books, stories and writers. The festival, from 28 October to 1 November, will be the first major metropolitan literary festival to take place with live audiences since the COVID-19 lockdown. WORD Christchurch is following Ministry of Health guidelines regarding COVID-19 alert levels…
Christchurch’s drinking-water is now flowing through a network of “state of the art” above-ground well heads following completion of Christchurch City Council’s well-head security improvement programme. The Council has upgraded a total of 119 below-ground well heads across the city, raising them above the ground to protect the drinking-water supply from potential surface contamination. The…
An innovative asphalt mix created from recycled waste plastic has put Christchurch on the road to sustainable street surface solutions. Fulton Hogan – working in partnership with the Christchurch City Council – is using its breakthrough product, named PlastiPhalt®, to repair Hereford Street in a first for the city. PlastiPhalt® is made with shredded, used…
Extensive investigations at He Puna Taimoana suggest an electrical interference that caused a customer’s implanted defibrillator to deliver a shock is not caused by equipment used within the hot pools complex. “Electrical engineers have carried out extensive investigations to determine the cause, advising that it is likely that some external source is causing a low…
Christchurch City Council will consider a report recommending the prioritisation of urban regeneration activity at a meeting on Thursday. The Urban Regeneration Priorities report proposes an initial focus for this year’s regeneration programme, and proposes a number of key locations to consider in the next Long Term Plan in 2021. The report draws on a…
Christchurch City Council staff are proposing a revamp of the planning rules relating to how visitor short-term accommodation is managed in different areas of the district. Earlier this year the Council invited the public to give feedback on five different options it was looking at to manage home-share accommodation – particularly Airbnb-type activity — in…
Discover Dragons and Taniwha in Canterbury Museum in a new exhibition featuring the works of New Zealand’s leading contemporary bone carver artist. Owen Mapp: Dragons and Taniwha – 50 Years an Artist Carver captures the intricate pieces of jewellery, sculptures, hei tiki and mere inspired by Māori taonga and culture, along with the influence of…
Christchurch City Council is meeting at 9.30am on Thursday 10 September. The main items on the agenda for the public part of the meeting are: Reports from all the Community Boards outlining the major issues and projects in the areas. A report from the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board that recommends the Council make improvements to the…
Christchurch’s inaugural Go Live! spring music festival is moving to November. The timing of the inaugural music festival has changed because of COVID-19. The event was scheduled to run for nine days from Thursday 24 September, with multiple local bands playing at venues across the city. However, the recent resurgence of COVID-19 in New Zealand…
A review into the quality of recent medium and high density housing developments in Christchurch has found room for improvement. However, the quality of housing developments in the city’s medium-density zones has improved on average in the 10 years since the last review and we are seeing an increase in density on individual sites. The…
Canterbury’s economic activity for July 2020 returned to a similar level as the same month last year, according to the first edition of ChristchurchNZ’s Canterbury Economic Activity Index. The monthly Index has been created by the city’s economic development agency to provide timely insights on the performance of the economy. It compares Canterbury’s economic indicators to national performance, enabling decision-makers to quickly respond to gaps and opportunities, ultimately helping to inform the socio-economic recovery plan…
Christchurch’s restored Town Hall has been recognised as a Category 1 Historic Place by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga. That means it is regarded as one of the most historically significant buildings in New Zealand. “Over the past 15 years there has been an effort within Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to increase the number…
Over the past three years, the Christchurch City Council has invested $572 million in improving transport and three waters infrastructure, building on the initial $2.22b spent over five-and-a-half years under the post-quake SCIRT (Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team) programme. SCIRT – a purpose-built organisation funded nationally, locally and through insurance – was initially responsible for…
Rachael Fonotia remembers the feeling of excitement and optimism on the day the Aranui Wainoni Community Centre opened, with local school children singing waiata and a rousing haka performed in front of the impressive new building. “It was a really amazing day and lots of people from the community were there. We had children from…
Several hundred suburban facilities have been repaired and rebuilt across the city, including heritage buildings, libraries and community centres, at a cost of more than $150 million in the decade since the devastating Canterbury earthquakes. What opened when? Some of the community and major facilities opened (or reopened) to the public since the 2010/2011 earthquakes…
Mayor Lianne Dalziel reflects on the 10th anniversary of the start of the devastating Canterbury earthquake sequence. More city stuff at the Source
People can sow the seeds of sustainability at The Great Library Seed and Plant Swap this month. Anyone with spare seeds can bring their sought-after leftovers into their local library to share with their community. Christchurch City Council Head of Libraries and Information Carolyn Robertson says that vegetable, herb, flower, native and heritage seeds are…
Residents heading to Christchurch City Council’s recreation and sports centres from 1 October will notice a slight increase in casual and concession entry fees. The increases are being introduced following the adoption of the Christchurch City Council’s Annual Plan in July, with Recreation and Sport membership, casual entry and facility hire prices reviewed each year…
Projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Christchurch or support resilience to the impacts of climate change could now be eligible for a grant from Christchurch City Council. “In Christchurch we have a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2045,’’ says Councillor Sara Templeton, who chairs the…
Prominent landmarks around Christchurch are being lit-up on 3 and 4 September to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the destructive Canterbury earthquake sequence. The earthquake sequence started in the early hours of 4 September 2010 when a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck near Darfield. Between then and December 2011, Christchurch was hit by…
The awards and accolades keep coming for Christchurch’s central library building, Tūranga. The five-storey building, which sits on the edge of Cathedral Square, has just become one of the few public buildings in New Zealand to be awarded a 5 Green Star – Custom Design Certified Rating from the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC)….
Roads will be closed and traffic diverted at night while gantries are installed on State Highway 1 near the Waimakariri Bridge, north of Christchurch. The Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says the Christchurch Northern Corridor work will require lane and full road closures from this Sunday night until October. The lane closures or diversions will…
The Bottle Lake Forest fairy village that magically mushroomed in size during the COVID-19 lockdown is on the move. Later this month Christchurch City Council park rangers will oversee the careful relocation of the hundreds of home-made fairy houses that are hanging on trees in Bottle Lake Forest Park, near the Juliet Road entrance. The…
Cristchurch City Council received more than 300 submissions in response to its four options for dealing with treated wastewater from Akaroa The period for public feedback closed on 23 August and staff are now analysing the feedback and preparing for hearings in mid-October. In all, 340 submissions were received from people and organisations around New…
A striking new “edition” of a dedicated community library has opened in Opawa. Following nearly 10 years without a permanent base, the volunteer-run Opawa Public Library finally has a home, sharing the new Christchurch City Council-funded, purpose-built building with the local Children’s Library. The Public Library had been operating out of the former Children’s Library…
Community feedback has resulted in changes being made to the plans for three new pedestrian and cycle bridges across the Ōtākaro Avon River. The bridges are being built to kick-start the regeneration of the former red-zone corridor along the river and are being funded by a $13.7 million grant from the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust….