Roger Sutton- Rezoning properties | Canterbury Opinion | Local Voices from Canterbury, New Zealand

Announcements last week which rezoned orange areas leave just 908 residential properties on the plains still in the orange category.   

The changes brought the number of red-zoned residential properties in Canterbury to 6540 and green-zoned properties to more than 180,000.

  It's CERA's highest priority to rezone remaining orange properties on the plains and 3700 white-zoned houses in the Port Hills (which have ongoing issues such as the danger of rock-fall and cliff collapse).  

However, it's important that while intensive geotechnical work continues in these orange and white areas, we do all we can to get up-to-date information to property owners, so people are in a better position to move on with their lives.   

In last week's column, I listed 20 scheduled public meetings and since then we've organised another six. This week we've already held two of those extra meetings in Brooklands for people rezoned red and the other four are for relevant green and orange property owners in Richmond, Southshore, Burwood and Retreat Rd, Avonside.   

Meetings coming up are at Parklands Baptist Church (for Parklands green zone) 2-4pm today (Friday), Parklands Baptist Church (Parklands green zone) 6.30-8.30pm today, Sumner Old School Hall (Redcliffs green zone) Monday 6.30-8.30pm, Roy Stokes Hall New Brighton (Southshore orange zone) Wednesday 6.30-8.30pm, Burwood Christian Centre (Burwood green zone) Thursday 6.30-8.30pm, Wainoni Scout Hall (Retreat Rd orange zone) next Friday 6.30-8.30pm.  

As well as the meetings, we've boosted the amount of information via advertising, the news media and direct mail. For more specific advice, I would like to remind people of useful resources they can use at no cost.   

The Earthquake Assistance Centre on the corner of Wainoni and Breezes Rd, Avondale (for enquiries ring 0800 RING CERA or 0800 7464 2372) and the Kaiapoi Earthquake Hub (ring 0800 NEW 000 or 0800 639 000), at 11 Cass Street, Darnley Square, both assist red zone homeowners who have insurance and are deciding on government offers to buy their properties. They also help connect people who have earthquake-related housing, legal and/or insurance issues with relevant services.   

The Kaiapoi Hub has had 470 intensive one-on-one appointments between property-owners and experts, and by Monday this week the Avondale Centre had 2432 people through the doors since opening on August 22. These 2432 residents saw a total of 3193 specialists, meaning many residents are seeing more than one during their visits and this will give them extra information to help formulate decisions.   

Another great free and confidential resource, which can be reached through the above centres or by calling 0800 777 846, is the Earthquake Support Coordinator Service. These coordinators can meet people anywhere they choose eg; at home, work or at a café. They can assist to navigate through all that's involved in rebuilding homes and lives and give as little or as much help as is needed in providing information, identifying services to assist with earthquake- related housing, finance, legal, insurance and health matters plus organising meetings with experts. Waimakariri Earthquake Support Service (WESS) coordinators are based at the Kaiapoi Service Centre, 24 Sewell St, ph. 327 5621.   

Some people have the misconception that the coordinators merely provide counselling, and while they can connect people to counselling services, they have a much wider role.