$105 million to reinstate Christchurch Cathedral

The Press reports:

 The report by Miriam Dean QC on Christ Church Cathedral gives two clear options for the quake-damaged building: reinstate or replace.

Dean was brought in by the Government to break the deadlock between church leaders, who wanted to partially demolish the building, and heritage campaigners, who wanted to save it. It was hoped the building’s future would be decided before Christmas.

She managed to get both sides, and their engineers, to agree on the feasibility of the two options and the costs.

The options are:

-Reinstatement, through a mix of repair, restoration, reconstruction and seismic strengthening, which would likely take until the end of 2022 and cost $105 million.

– Replacement with a new cathedral. This could be completed by the end of 2019 and cost $63m to $66m.

I don’t care which option is pursued so long as it is done with private money, not public money. Taxpayers should not fund a church.

If people in Christchurch want to reinstate the Cathedral, then they should fund-raise for it to cover the gap between what the Church has in insurance, and the cost.