Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
- Restoration of Christ Church Cathedral is to be stopped
- Cost of restoration had blown out to $248 million, then revised down to $219m, still leaving a short fall of $85m
- Mothballing is expected to cost around a million dollars a year, plus a one-off cost of $5m
Hopes of a restored Christ Church Cathedral have ended up as a pile of rocks in Christchurch's Cathedral Square.
That's the description by the head of the group in charge of restoring the city's iconic cathedral.
Work to restore the Christ Church Cathedral is to stop with the project leaders unable to see a way forward with a shortfall of funding.
The group leading the restoration work, the Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited (CCRL), said the construction work on the site will be paused, hopefully to be restarted sometime in the future.
CCRL chairperson Mark Stewart said it was a "very" sad day but there was not much choice without the money to keep going.
Bishop Dr Peter Carrell said they hoped they would be able to restart construction soon, but could not give any timeline.
Stewart said there was inevitably a cost to stopping work. The exact cost had not yet been determined but it was likely to be around $1 million per year to maintain the site, and a one-off cost of $5m to stop, and then hopefully restart, work.
The CCRL board met yesterday to decide on the next step following an announcement earlier this month that the government would not put more money towards the restoration of the cathedral.
CCRL had requested $60m from the government to help meet a $85m shortfall.
Stewart said that decision was pivotal in the decision to shut down work.
Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Limited chair Mark Stewart says it is sad for all involved that work on the restoration has to stop. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Graham
"The original parties to the reinstatement were the government, the Anglican Church, the Christchurch City Council, and philanthropy generally and those stakeholders still remain very valid in terms of how we solve this problem.
"The government has decided at this time to not hold hand with us, and that therefore has led us to not having a viable path to completion."
He said $84m had so far been spent on the project.
"We didn't want to be here, nonetheless we are. There has been a lot of effort, a lot of volunteer time, a lot of commitment of donors, and it seems to have ended up in a pile of rocks in the middle of Cathedral Square at this point, but we are committed to reinstating it."
Carrell pointed out that after the earthquakes the Anglican Church wanted to deconstruct the cathedral, but were stopped from doing so due to legal action by heritage advocates.
He said as owners of the building they were heading toward demolishing it and weren't allowed to do it, and as the continuing owners of the building they are trying to do the right thing by reinstating it and look forward to finding a way to do that.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger said the council would continue to provide support.
"The cathedral is an important part of Christchurch's history, and we will continue to support CCRL's efforts to find a funding pathway so reinstatement can continue. This is so much more than just a church, it's a building that sits at the heart of our city, and I hope that funding to complete the reinstatement can be secured at some point."
Council general manager finance, risk and performance Bede Carran said while construction on the reinstatement project had been paused, it was too early to make decisions regarding the funds the Council had already rated and collected.
"CCRL today asked the Council to hold the $7 million that was due until the future of the cathedral's reinstatement becomes clearer. If in the future there is a way forward for the project to proceed then the funds can be released."
Work closing the site is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
