By Annabelle Tukia
Christchurch author Joe Bennett can breathe easy again – the City Council has decided his Lyttelton house is no longer at risk of rockfalls.
For five months Bennett has been ignoring council demands to leave his “at-risk” house, and now he's been told the property is safe to live in once more.
Bennett says he was never in any danger, and should not have been banned from the house in the first place.
“I've judged [the house] correctly not to be a dangerous place and [Council] have finally come round to that point of view,” he says.
“It should have never have got that far, and there remain dozens of people in exactly the same situation.”
Bennett says nothing about his home or its surrounds has changed to make it any safer now than it was five months ago, but thinks his outspoken behaviour may have contributed to the lifting of the ban.
“I feel like I'm the only person in Colditz who’s been released… because he was being a bit of a pain in the butt, and my mates are still back in prison.”
By mates Bennett means the 550 Port Hills homeowners still faced with a red-sticker because of potential rock-fall.
Sue Stubenvoll is one of them and she, too, says she knows the risks around her home and should be allowed to make her own decision to live there.
“I'm happy if the Fire Department throw me out because they know what they're talking about,” she says.
“For some bunch of bureaucrats in the City Council to turn me out and keep me out is unreasonable.”
3 News