The South Brightside

21/09/2026

The South Brighton Residents' Association
Annual General Meeting will be held on
Monday, 28 September 2026 at 10.00 a.m.
Venue tbd. Please message us if you wish to attend.

08/09/2026

The Blake St housing project was discussed at yesterday's Community Board meeting. You can download the full minutes here:
https://christchurch.infocouncil.biz

25/07/2026

Have Your Say on the Future of Local Government

🔗 https://letstalk.ccc.govt.nz/head-start

It's a wet weekend, so why not spend five minutes completing Christchurch City Council's survey on the proposed reorganisation of local government? The survey closes at midnight tomorrow (Sunday).

The Government is considering significant changes to how councils are organised in Canterbury. These changes could affect how decisions are made about local services, environmental management, infrastructure and community representation for many years to come.

Some questions worth thinking about include:
• Will larger councils lead to better decisions, or make local communities less visible?
• Should local boards have dedicated budgets and stronger decision-making powers?
• How can smaller communities continue to have an effective voice?
• How can responsibility for important local issues be kept clear and accountable?

Whatever your views, this is an opportunity to have your say before decisions are made.

From the South Brighton Residents' Association's perspective, some principles are worth keeping in mind:

• Local knowledge matters. People who live in an area often notice issues long before they appear in official reports.
• Clear accountability matters. Residents should know which organisation is responsible for flood protection, environmental management, infrastructure and emergency planning, and where to turn when problems arise.
• Small communities matter. Changes that work for Christchurch as a whole should also work for suburbs such as South New Brighton.
• Decisions should be made as close as practicable to the communities they affect.
• Long-term commitments should survive organisational change. Councils may merge or boundaries may change, but commitments to communities should remain.
• Protection from natural hazards matters. As climate change and natural hazards become more significant, communities need confidence that flood protection, resilient infrastructure and emergency planning will remain effective, well maintained and clearly accountable.

Whether you support change or prefer the current arrangements, please take a few minutes to complete the survey and make your views known.

We are exploring options for reorganising Canterbury councils, after the Government asked for proposals to simplify local government. Tell us what you think by 26 July.

07/04/2026

A City Council Policy and Planning Committee Meeting is being held tomorrow at 9.30 a.m. in the Camelia Chambers on Level 2.
Item 7 on the Agenda is “Coastal Hazards Adaptation Planning: Where to next?”

https://christchurch.infocouncil.biz/Open/2026/04/PAPCC_20260408_AGN_10801_AT_WEB.htm

According to Item 3.4 of the Agenda:

“The recommended sequence is the lower Ōpāwaho Heathcote River and Saint Andrews Hill to Taylors Mistake first, followed by the remaining areas of Tē Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula alongside the Pūharakekenui Lower Styx River and then the lower Ōtākaro Avon river and Waimairi to Southshore areas”.
..."Adaptation planning in each area (or block) is likely to take two years.”

Fifteen years after the earthquakes, Council appears to have abandoned its “South New Brighton Regeneration Plan” from July 2017 and intends to ignore the earthquake legacy issues. In its resolution of 22 May 2019, Council promised to “decouple these legacy issues from adaptive planning for climate change”. Will protection for South New Brighton now wait for a further eight years, at the end of this “Coastal Hazard Adaptation Process”?

01/03/2026

South Brighton Residents' Association

General Meeting will be held on
Sunday, 8 March, 2026, 1.30–2.30 p.m.
Venue tbd. Please message us if you wish to attend.

23/02/2026

16/02/2026

What a relief! Although South Brighton is still not mentioned....

More than 14,000 households in the city's east were under the boil water notice, which has now been lifted.

14/02/2026

Today's boil water notice for the eastern suburbs lists the affected areas as New Brighton, Burwood, Wainoni, Aranui and Southshore. But why was South Brighton not mentioned? Has our suburb disappeared? Lack of clear communication on important issues such as this kind of public health alert is unhelpful and can only lead to confusion. There is also no information on the exact contaminant(s), or on why the entire eastern corridor is affected. Water in the South Brighton Domain comes from a local well, rather than from Rawhiti. Has it also been contaminated and if so, how?

Residents and visitors to areas of New Brighton, Burwood, Wainoni, Aranui and Southshore are being advised to boil their water until further notice after a sample within the zone was found to be contaminated.

15/11/2025

゚viralシalシ

Homeless people without any consultation or consideration of affected people.
SBRA have been working on this forceful behaviour of Council for a few months now.

A community meeting was held where 20-25 people attended and the unanimous decision was that everyone opposes Councils decision in this matter.

For clarity, this is not about emergency housing but housing for homeless people (Single men living rough as defined in the application to Council) in a quiet residential area. Due to the low elevation of the site. It will be very expensive to build on and the homeless people with have their floor levels at the height of the fence of the neighbouring properties. Issues regarding privacy and upsetting existing residents.
TC3 - Lateral spreading - Liquefaction - Subsidence.

Another point is that Council is using incorrect data and underestimating the flood risk on This site (this is confirmed in council documents). All flood maps at council portray this higher than neighbouring properties while 81 Blake St is at similar level to most neighbouring properties. The site falls under the definition of High-Flood-Hazard-Management-Area (HFHMA) according to latest elevation data from Council -new building is not permitted on such land.

That are the regulations the ratepayers of Christchurch have to follow.

As Christchurch City Council have been notified about this situation, any contracts can be voided in the future (Ultra Vires). Very high risk investment to say the least.
My calculations are about 1 million for groundwork and foundations before houses can be set down. If the job is stopped by Ultra Vires Judgement at that stage. Total loss 1m.

Other issues -
no services for vulnerable people or very far to go.
Stormwater infrastructure for this site is broken. Council has known this for years and neglected to repair what is broken. This is causing land erosion for other neighbouring properties.

Plainly this is not a suitable solution.
There are much better options available that I have brought up with Council.

A housing trust has been given a peppercorn lease and the green light to build up to 10 relocatable homes in South Brighton, for people living rough.