Christ Church Cathedral leaders say they do not yet know how much of the severely damaged building will have to come down.

On Friday last week, Bishop Victoria Matthews announced a partial demolition of the cathedral was needed to make the building safe.

This triggered a process which saw quake authorities issue the church with a section 38 notice, giving them 10 days to produce a plan for their intended demolition.

If the deadline was not met, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) would take over, using its own contractors to demolish at the owner's cost.

It is understood the cathedral has welcomed the 10-day notice as a way of speeding up the process by circumventing a lengthy local authority consenting process.

Neither the Dean of the Cathedral, nor the Anglican Bishop will answer media questions on the process.

However, in a statement released this afternoon the Anglican diocese said it was committed to having a cathedral in the city centre.

It said the cathedral was currently "unsafe and dangerous" and the first priority was to make the site safe through some controlled demolition.



However, the extent of this demolition remained unknown and would only be determined by engineers once works had begun.



Its structural engineers were preparing a plan to give to Cera on Tuesday.



"The plan will outline the proposed 'make safe' works, list and location of artifacts that may be recoverable and include confirmation that funding is available for the works," the statement said.

Cera letter confirms process

A letter from Cera to the church trustees, dated November 2 clarified requirements for the section 38 notice.

It said it was "acceptable" for the church to retrieve artefacts but there had to be strengthening work done to protect those doing the retrieving.

The plan also had to explain how the church would "remove all the hazards" of the "dangerous building", the timeline for the work, and "a full description of the state the building will be left in once the works are completed".

A section 38 notice is issued to owners of buildings that are considered dangerous in accordance with the Earthquake Recovery Act.

The cathedral must provide information on demolition methodology, Cera accredited contractor names, start and finish dates, traffic management, health and safety, waste and hazard management plans and plans for remediation of the site.

Demolition confusion

The Press spoke to Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee on Thursday evening and asked directly if the Cathedral would be partially or fully demolished.

The minister said the cathedral was "severely damaged" and would be deconstructured.

"It's a precautionary thing. What do you do if you start deconstruction and all of it falls over. It's very unstable."

However, on Friday morning Cera chief Roger Sutton said the notice issued to the cathedral authorities last Friday was for partial demolition.

Calls for greater public debate

Christchurch Central MP Brendon Burns said there needed to be more public debate about the future of the cathedral.

"We just get a sense that the cathedral is proceeding towards a major demolition option without the public debate that many of us believe should happen," he said.

"It is profoundly disturbing for the community not to be engaged on this issue as I think it deserves to be."

Chair of heritage campaign group Iconic, Dr Ian Lochhead, said the order was "appalling".

"The church is operating under some duress from Cera. Building owners with section 38 notices served on them are in a situation where they are forced to make decisions very rapidly," he said. "It means the church is under real pressure to come up with a response.

"I don't think that is appropriate for a building that is so important to Christchurch. It is as important to Christchurch as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris," Lochhead said.