27 Jan 2015

Legal action threat over land clash

12:50 pm on 27 January 2015

The Canterbury A&P Association is threatening legal action against the Christchurch City Council if it goes ahead with plans to build a sports hub on land the association uses for carparking.

Christchurch City Council

The comments came during verbal submissions to the council today. Photo: RNZ

The possibility was raised today during verbal submissions to the council on the proposed Nga Puna Wai hub.

The hub has been welcomed by sporting codes in Canterbury that have been making do without facilities since locations such as QE2 were quake-damaged.

Today, Canterbury A&P Association chair Ben Tothill told councillors that the Canterbury A&P Show would be thrown into jeopardy if parking for up to 10,000 cars could not be provided.

Mr Tothill said the association was negotiating with the council to secure an adjoining piece of land that could be used for carparking in place of the land the council wanted.

But he said if those negotiations fell through, the association would resort to legal action to stop the hub from happening.

He denied the prospect of legal action was itself a negotiating tool.

"It's not a threat, it's reality. We are simply facing a death knell if Nga Puna Wai goes ahead without an alternative solution."

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