Dear Christchurch City Council,
(note letter has been sent previously on 12 March 2024 to all Councillors)

We welcome the increased governance oversight that has occurred recently regarding Christchurch Airport’s (CIAL) management of the Tarras Airport proposal (1).

While the media have quickly labeled the decisions as being a hold on the Tarras Airport proposal, Sustainable Tarras believes this isn’t what has been decided by CIAL or Christchurch City Holdings Limited (CCHL). The announcement documents clearly state that a more “cautious approach is warranted” and that time is needed to “reflect on the substantial work to date”. These are statements very concerning – is this not standard practice when over $60 million has been spent?

The CIAL letter does not state they are going to stop spending money, just that they need an extension of time. CCHL’s Chair’s letter is different to CIAL, yet CIAL is the one continuing to spend money.

Given CIAL have pushed out their project planning timeframes twice already, this and the other commentary represents little change and instead prompts further concern.

We request you use your heightened governance scrutiny to ask CIAL and CCHL the following, in addition to our earlier questions sent May 29, 2023 and February 19, 2024, which remain unanswered (2).

What do the two letters from CIAL and CCHL actually mean in practice?
What are the project costs to date?
What debt has been incurred to finance the proposal to date?
What current ongoing expenditures will be canceled?
What is the number of full-time equivalent staff planned for the quarter April-June 2024 on the project?
What is the number of consultants working on the project?
What is the return on the land in its current use?
How much more dividend could CIAL return if all project costs were stopped and the land sold?
Is the Tarras Community Fund still open for applications, and will it remain open?

Lastly, we note CCHL expects CIAL to “continue to engage effectively with local communities”. We welcome this, and look forward to receiving a far higher level of transparency, including the answers to the fundamental information we seek. In the meantime our community is living with a significant level of stress with CIAL as our neighbour.

Ngā mihi nui,

Suze Keith

Sustainable Tarras

https://sustainabletarras.com/

021 171 1557

Sent to:

Christchurch City Councillors & Mayor

Chair & CEO of Christchurch City Holdings Limited

Ministers of Finance, State-Owned Enterprise, and Tourism

1. https://www.cchl.co.nz/uploads/images/CC...
2. - a fully transparent business case, including the average annual flight and passenger forecasts, projected revenue and profitability forecasts for Tarras Airport up to, and beyond,
- the time of break-even and payback on the initial development costs;
- the projected impact of Tarras development activities on CIAL dividend payment over the next 30 years;
- an update on the social licence development including a summary of national and local public sentiment and media coverage;
- an analysis of the impact of flight diversions away from Christchurch to Tarras on the Christchurch tourism economy, and,
- an estimation of carbon emissions generated by Tarras Airport, including embodied construction and scope 3 flight emissions and detailed mechanisms to offset these.

Yours faithfully,

Suze Keith

Yours faithfully,

Suze Keith