Work on CTV building memorial garden to begin in new year

File photo / Geoff Sloan

Work to create a temporary memorial garden at the former CTV building in Christchurch will begin in the new year.

It is scheduled to be completed in time for the third anniversary of the devastating February 2011 earthquake, in which 115 people died when the building collapsed.

An interim plan for the site has been produced by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), and sent to families the organisation has contact details for.

The proposal includes laying grass, replacing the current high fencing with a low post-and-chain fence, placing planter boxes on the perimeter and erecting a sign which recognises the significance of the site.

City Care will donate its time and machinery, and will work with CERA to complete the work, ahead of any longer term plans for the Crown-owned site.

"In the longer term, we have committed to ensuring this special site remains a place in the new East Frame that people can visit and reflect on what occurred there," said CERA chief executive Roger Sutton.

"However the message to us has been clear that the site needs to be made more welcoming and accessible in the interim for people to come and pay their respects, and we are responding to that. Part of the site will remain as it is for now to provide a connection to what was once there for people."