Tim Scandrett: Christchurch City Councillor on the future of the Christ Church Cathedral

A Christchurch city councillor says there could be options to come to a deal regarding the rebuild of Christ Church Cathedral.  

Its future's in doubt as the Government refuses to step in to plug a $114 million funding gap for the restoration.  

Asked if the Church could be sold rather than rebuilt, Tim Scandrett told Heather du Plessis Allan there are possibilities, but none have been presented to council.  

He says the church owns property and could come to council with some options —which may be considered if they were in ratepayers' interests— but that hasn't happened. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever, duper c Ellen. So it looks like the christ
Church Cathedral will be mothboard. The government's decided it's not
going to give the rebuild any more money. They wanted
another sixty million bucks from the government. This means that
they do not have enough money to keep going with
the rebuild. Christ Church City councilor Tim scandret is with
us now hate.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Tim, thank you?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
They have you, Yeah, very well, thank you. So the
Council's put money on hold as well.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Ah well, we we agreed some time ago to give
ten million, so we did three and now we've got seven.
And so they have fulfilled all the obligations under that agreement.
And so that's that's as far as we'll eve agreed,
as far as I'm aware.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Okay, what's the fix? I mean, they've got to find
eighty five million bucks. Where are they going to get
it from?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, if you kind of go, they go into the
Church of England. It's a global organization, isn't it. Yeah,
I know that, you know in society now we live
in it now. But I think it took sixty years
to build it the first place, so you know, they
might have the time up their sleeve.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I agree with you. But they didn't want to have
to rebuild this thing in the first place, right, they
were forced to.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Do it, Yeah, exactly, and that was totally in the
kind of fhere, and you know, they were unhappy about that.
But then you could argue that half of them weren't.
But maybe that at half that they weren't unhappy about
rebuilding it should put their hands in their pockets and
find a bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
I mean, it seems to me they're gonna have to
crowdfund this one put up and give a little page
or something.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, yeah, good luck to be.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
I mean, could they could they actually sell something to
fund it? I mean, if they didn't really want to
have to rebuild it, could they just sell it?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, they've got property around the place, and you know,
maybe there's a deal deer, and if they came to
us with some options, if that's in the best interest
of the rate payers, maybe there could be a deal
deal with some of the areas they've got. But that's
you know that that that hasn't happened yet. I think
they just really found out that the government said no.
So I'm sure that they are having a few discussions
around the table to.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Send it Tim, Thank you very much, really appreciated. Tim scandrit.
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