Court halts demolition of ChristChurch Cathedral

Published: 4:46PM Thursday November 15, 2012 Source: ONE News

The High Court has extended an order stopping demolition of the quake-damaged Christ Church Cathedral.

Late this afternoon, Christchurch High Court judge Justice Chisholm extended a ruling to stop demolition work at the iconic building until a judicial review has taken place.

The review was sought by the Great Christchurch Building Trust who argue the owners are under a legal obligation to restore the existing Cathedral.

"The decision to deconstruct the Cathedral without any decision to repair or rebuild it meant that its decision was incomplete," a statement from the trust said this afternoon.

Justice Chisholm allowed the review saying there was considerable public interest in the site.

However, he agreed with the owners that they were only legally obliged to either repair the existing Cathedral or build another Cathedral on the same site.

"We are pleased the decision to deconstruct the old cathedral and rebuild a new cathedral was confirmed by the Judge," said Cathedral Trust spokesperson Bishop Victoria.

"As we have said since March the new design will be a mixture of old and new and it will be beautiful."

In the aftermath of the February 22 2011 earthquake, CERA said the Cathedral was unsafe and needed to be demolished to 2 metres high but Chisholm today ruled they were not required to act on that finding.

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Court halts demolition of ChristChurch Cathedral