Christchurch City Council funding is not in good shape for the rebuild, or so we have been told, with a $900 million shortfall. We have learnt via a recent Shirley Papanui community board meeting that council staff are busy prioritising council-owned buildings and sites in Christchurch and so far do not intend to rebuild the St Albans Community Centre when the transitional centre building is removed in April 2016. Community leaders fear that council-owned land at 43a Edgeware Road and 1047 Colombo Street could be sold off and St Albans left without a community centre.
However, the community board is going ahead with consultation over a community centre in St Albans.
Watch out for the August edition of St Albans News coming soon.
With this in mind:
Do you think the city council should pay for a replacement to the St Albans Community Centre, using insurance money it would have received for the centre?
Do you think it fair that the Council is building/rebuilding damaged community facilities in some suburbs but effectively telling others to make do with what facilities are available already?
Should the city council be paying for any community centres in Christchurch?
Should communities raise their own funds and build their own centres rather than using council-owned buildings? (Funding could include grants available through a number of funders, loans through CCC or other funders, sponsorship, community fairs or crowd funding etc)
Could the substantial costs (sometimes into millions of dollars) be spread by making community centres into joint projects between councils and several community groups?
(If you have any comments about what makes a community centre, please add comments to What is a Community Centre post)
Your views and ideas?
