Ashley Campbell, the woman who started the campaign to ecologically restore the Ōtākaro Avon River red zone, is standing as a candidate for ECan.

Within a day of the first red zone announcement in 2011, Campbell began the campaign that eventually led to the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Plan. She was a founding member of the Avon-Ōtākaro Network, and founder of Greening the Red Zone.

She is also a member of Te Tira Kāhikuhiku, the red zones transitional land use advisory group.

“Friends have been urging me for the past six years to consider standing for ECan and now it feels like the time is right,” she said.

Campbell is standing as an independent candidate in the Christchurch North East/Ōrei Ward – the coastal ward that also contains most of the Ōtākaro Avon River red zone.

“While I live just over the border in Linwood, Christchurch North East/Ōrei is the area I grew up in and went to school in. It’s where my parents still live.

“It’s also Christchurch’s climate change front line, in terms of experiencing rising sea and groundwater levels, and in helping to protect our city and help us adapt.

“The people of Christchurch have already experienced what happens when nature forces change upon us. We can’t wait for that to happen again – we have to act now, to ensure we are ready and have adapted to minimise the impacts of climate change.

“It’s so important that we harness the huge potential of this area to keep people safe and enhance their lives, while also improving the environment.”

With transport responsible for more than half of Christchurch’s greenhouse gas emissions, and petrol costs continuing to rise, Campbell said she also wanted much better, more frequent and user-friendly public transport in the North East/Ōrei ward.

“If we want people to use public transport, we need to provide a service that works for them. Frequent, reliable, and cost-effective public transport is essential not just to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions, but also to provide genuine options as running a car becomes too expensive for increasing numbers of people.

“If ever there was a time to get public transport right for the people of Christchurch, that time is now.”

© Scoop Media