A project to reopen two earthquake-damaged buildings in the Christchurch heritage precinct relies on city councillors signing off the one-off ratepayer grant.
Despite the council’s funding support agreement stipulating that a review be carried out within the first three years, Macdonald had to push to get it done. Deloitte issued its damning report to council last November. In early December, I applied to the council for the report to be publicly released, under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act. Late in January, the council’s official information team advised me that they were refusing to release it publicly, until March. As we now know, Deloitte’s independent review determined that the foundation operates very high cost structures, was not transparent and failed to fully co-operate with the review.
Aldridge revealed in June last year the earthquake-damaged Arts Centre, home to the largest collection of heritage buildings in New Zealand, was struggling financially. He told councillors the centre was facing a $1.5m annual shortfall and was at risk of closure if it did not receive public funding. Since then, the centre has undergone a major restructure and made nearly one third of its 30 staff redundant. All senior managers took pay cuts, including Aldridge, whose pay dropped 33 per cent. Aldridge had originally asked the council for an annual grant because unlike the publicly-funded Canterbury Museum and Christchurch Art Gallery, it operates without any subsidy from the Government or the council.
Press Release – University of Canterbury Thousands of University of Canterbury (UC) students will fill central Christchurch for graduation processions, ceremonies and celebrations next week. The upcoming graduations will be the largest in the universitys 147-year history, with six end-of-year …
Thousands of University of Canterbury (UC) students will fill central Christchurch for graduation processions, ceremonies and celebrations next week.
The upcoming graduations will be the largest in the university’s 147-year history, with six end-of-year graduation ceremonies and two separate celebration events to be held at the Christchurch Town Hall between Monday 14 December and Friday 18 December.
Capping off a unique year, in which Covid-19 caused cancellations and disrupted lectures, a record total of almost 3000 UC students will take part in the week’s events.