Cathedral wars heat up

Traditionalists launch PR offensive CHARLES ANDERSON AND ANNA PEARSON

SUPPLIED

STRAIGHT-BACKED: Christ Church Cathedral from above in a photo taken for the Great Christchurch Building Trust, which is campaigning to save the building.

A group opposing the Christ Church Cathedral demolition has launched a public relations offensive to convince Kiwis the landmark is not ruined.

The six-week campaign by the Great Christchurch Building Trust (GCBT) includes extensive billboard and media advertising, featuring photographs of the cathedral taken from a helicopter.

GCBT co-chairman Jim Anderton said the photographs showed the cathedral in a different light - far from the ruin that many perceived it to be.

The trust had engaged focus groups and discovered many people believed the building was beyond repair when the reality was far different, he said.

"The hope is that we will be able to change opinion in the city from it's a ruin' to finding a way forward to repair it that would not cost the ratepayer anything."

Auckland-based public relations consultant Fleur Revell, of Impact PR, told The Press the campaign would bring the debate to life again but her advice would have been to "spell out the compelling reasons why the cathedral needs to stay in a more convincing way".

"The key messages on why it needs to stay need to be stated more clearly; instead there are simply a series of opinion pieces and supporting documents for the public to click on and read. This puts the onus back on the public to essentially do the research themselves," she said.

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Cathedral wars heat up