Christchurch Councillor looking forward to Historic Places role

Christchurch City Councillor Anna Crighton is delighted about her election to the board of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga.

Three places on the Trust¡¯s nine-member board are decided every three years by a vote of the Trust¡¯s members (the remaining six seats are Government appointments). The election was held last month and the results announced today (7 July). The new board¡¯s first meeting will be in Wellington in September.

Cr Crighton was elected from the southern region. Sitting board member Denys Oldham, of Auckland, and Michael Spedding, of Gisborne, were elected from the northern and central regions.

Cr Crighton chairs the Christchurch City Council¡¯s Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee, is chair of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board and a director of Christchurch Heritage Trust. She also serves on the trust boards of Canterbury Museum, the Theatre Royal Charitable Foundation and the Music Centre of Christchurch.

¡°I¡¯m delighted (about the result),¡± Cr Crighton says. ¡°It means I can spread my wings a bit, look at national policy and help shape that. We¡¯ve a pretty good record in Christchurch and have tried new things to restore and preserve our heritage culture and keep it useful ¨C some of which have worked well and others less so ¨C and I think that experience could be used in other places.¡±

Her aim is to help create a New Zealand where it is more difficult to destroy important heritage buildings, items and sites. ¡ñ Christchurch City Council adopted its current Heritage Conservation Policy in 1998. In it, the Council says it has the primary responsibility for protecting Christchurch¡¯s heritage on behalf of its residents. The policy is available on the web, at www.ccc.govt.nz/Publications/HeritageConservationPolicy/HeritageConservationPolicies.pdf

¡ñ The NZ Historic Places Trust Pouhere Taonga website is at www.historic.org.nz

© Scoop Media