Council a step closer to Port Hills rockfall decision
LOIS CAIRNS
Last updated 07:35 19/10/2012

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Port Hills property owners battling the red-zoning of their homes will find out next month whether the Christchurch City Council will help reduce their rockfall risk.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) has ruled out area-wide rockfall mitigation work, but the council is looking at whether some properties could be made habitable through site-specific remediation work, how that could be achieved and at what cost.

Council chief executive Tony Marryatt said yesterday that a report on those issues would be presented to the council next month.

Red-zoned Avoca Valley resident Tony Ging yesterday appeared before the council for the second time in as many months to plead for it to take control of rockfall mitigation on the Port Hills.

Accusing Cera of over-estimating the cost and the time it would take to put in place rockfall protection, Ging said it was a viable option and could potentially save ratepayers and taxpayers millions of dollars in buyout costs.

The council faces having to pay $58 million towards the cost of buying the properties that Cera has condemned because of the rockfall risk.

"We have been out of our homes for 602 days.

"It has been far, far too long for homeowners existing in constant stress, disruption and frustration," Ging said.

"Cera has totally mismanaged this process and it is time for the council to take over."

John Clarke, South Island manager of engineering firm Maccaferri, said international experts had visited various Port Hills sites and thought it was possible to mitigate the risks of rockfall at a reasonable cost.

Cera chief executive Roger Sutton told the meeting that the authority had taken an area-wide approach to rockfall mitigation and had not considered each property individually.

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