Roger Sutton: Gain info at workshops | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

On Monday, CERA is starting two weeks of workshops for Canterbury residential red zone homeowners to help them with the big decisions they have to make.

The workshops, which will be held during afternoons and evenings, are opportunities for people to get more information about the Government's letter of offer, about land and property availability and about insurance and financial planning.

During the housing options expo held at the end of July, there were several seminars covering the same themes which attracted large crowds. Since then, in discussion with the community network CanCERN and other community-based organisations, the need for similar information sessions has been highlighted as really important.

This time, the workshops will run over a fortnight with two sessions specifically for older people, one for the Chinese community and one for the Korean community. There will be professionals from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand to advise on what property is available for buying and for rent. The Department of Building and Housing will talk about building a new home and what is required including the consents process, legal requirements and so on.

Banks and insurance companies will be present at each session to talk about money and insurance and CERA staff will be on hand to help with any questions about the letter of offer.

These are difficult times for many people who have tough decisions to make. So having as much information as possible to help decide what to do and where to go is vital. The full schedule of the workshops is available on the website - www.cera.govt.nz. If you want to attend, phone CERA on the info line 0800 RING CERA (0800 7464 2372) and register. You will be asked what day and time you would like (there are two sessions per day) and what venue suits you best.

While we continue to provide as much information as possible for people already in the residential red zone, I am mindful there are many thousands of other Christchurch and Canterbury residents anxious about the status of their land. Street meetings are being organised for Port Hills residents throughout October which we are working on with the city council. There will also be meetings in the future for people who are still zoned orange and want to know what the time frames are for them when all the relevant information has been collated and analysed. There are many complexities from a geotechnical and economic perspective relating to these decisions and we need complete accuracy before making announcements.

The thirst for understanding and knowledge about the ongoing earthquakes and the severity of the damage that has occurred is understandable.

When the dates for the public visits into the CBD red zone are finalised, you will also get a chance to see what has happened to the inner city. It is a stark reminder to everyone that even though there is an enormous challenge ahead of us - every day there is a lot of work being done to speed along the recovery effort.