Quake victims claim Govt no longer listening

There are claims the Government is not listening to earthquake victims amid growing resistance in Canterbury to its residential red zone buy-out offer.

Up to 200 rallied in Kaiapoi yesterday, disheartened by the small-print in the Government's property buy-out deal, with promises of another in a fortnight.

Reverend Mike Coleman is red-zoned in Avonside.

He's leading a fight for the Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and CERA boss Roger Sutton to listen to the issues with insurers, valuations, and a lack of access to Kaiapoi geotechnical information.

"Mr Brownlee and Roger Sutton, they seem to have shut down on it, they just are not listening to people in the red zone," he says.

Reverend Coleman says 30 percent of Kaiapoi's population is elderly and people are confused by the whole situation.

Kaiapoi resident Suzanne Gould says some Christchurch residents may have seen their land write-off coming, but it was different for Kaiapoi which was moving toward rebuild.

"We didn't see it coming but the worst thing is all those big wigs sitting up the top in their big fat chairs, they saw it coming and they didn't tell us," she said tearfully.

Ms Gould says having to sell at the Government's valuations will set them back a huge amount and put her whole family at a disadvantage.

Meanwhile, CERA says more than 800 people have opted into the buy-out scheme, with 378 taking the full house-and-land option and 563 opting for land-only.

CERA boss Roger Sutton says 286 property owners are disputing their green zone classification and want to go into either the orange or red zone, while 26 homeowners who are red-zoned, are applying to become green.

- Newstalk