Dear Mr Brownlee,

As discussed here attached find a letter following up on our discussions at the Earthquake Forum on the 4th of November.

I look forward to hearing back from you on these matters.

Regards
Hugo Kristinsson

Member of South Brighton Residents' Association
TC3 Residents Facebook group
Empowered Christchurch
Associate of WeCan

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An open letter to the Honourable Gerry Brownlee, Minister for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery.

Christchurch, 22 November 2013.

Dear Minister
This is a request for information under the Official Information Act.

Please also consider this letter as submission to the Land Use Recovery Plan.

Firstly I would like to thank you for co-hosting the Canterbury Earthquake Forum held on 4 November 2013. I firmly believe that events like these should to be held on a regular basis. In addition, residents need to see that issues have been clearly identified, and action plans are in place. They also should receive regular feedback on how such issues are being resolved.

While many different forums and meetings have been held over the last three years, up to now there has been a lamentable lack of engagement with residents.

As discussed during and after the Forum, I am especially concerned about the hazard mapping of the earthquake fault that that caused the February 2011 earthquake, the most destructive and deadly in the South Island's history.

It has now been named the Port Hills Fault. Ecan has published the following finding:

The movement on the Port Hills Fault during the February 2011 earthquake stopped somewhere around 1-2 km below the ground surface - it didn't break the ground surface.

Because of this we are not commissioning a report like the Greendale Fault report to advise on managing fault rupture hazard at the ground surface.

When one side of a fault rises and the other subsides, the fault breaks the crust of the earth. As Christchurch is on sandy liquefiable soil, this fault is unlikely to ever reach the surface.

GNS has established fault avoidance zones, as for example on the Kapiti Coast. Either avoidance zones or stricter building regulations are required on or in proximity to a fault line. So I fail to understand why has the earthquake fault in the South Island, one that wreaked such devastation, not been designated a hazard.

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Full letter: OpenLetterGerryBrownlee.pdf

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