From Tuesday onwards Police will be in a position to start retrieving vehicles within car park buildings within the cordon. This will be a slow process on a building by building basis as there are still significant safety issues and the team are having to work closely with engineers before entering certain locations.
The first car park to be cleared will be the private car park situated at 101 Victoria Square. Owners of vehicles in this car park are being asked to attend assemble on the corner of Barbadoes Street and Moorhouse Avenue from 5pm on Tuesday (15 March) with proof of ID, proof of ownership and vehicle keys. Owners will then hand keys to Police and wait while the vehicle is retrieved.
For safety reasons only one person is able to enter the building to retrieve a vehicle at any given time so the process may take some hours.
Police are therefore urging owners to:
• Bear with us
• Bring a chair
• If it is raining shelter will be provided
• No member of the public/owner will be allowed into the cordon area to retrieve their own vehicle for safety reasons
• There is limited room at the assembly point so owners should come alone
• No parking is available at the assembly point so please make arrangements to be dropped off
• If you are collecting on behalf of the owner you need to have with you some sort of authorisation from the owner
• REMEMBER - bring your vehicle key
The same process, time and assembly point will apply to the following:
Wednesday, 16 March
Vehicles in the Manchester Street car park situated on the corner of Gloucester Street and Manchester Street.
Thursday, 17 March
Vehicles in the Rydges Hotel situated on Oxford Terrace
If you do not have a key for your vehicle or are unable to attend on the relevant date please register your details with the Vehicle Recovery Team on 0800 311 311. Your vehicle will eventually be recovered and you will be contacted to uplift it, but that could take some time.
Further locations will be advertised with at least 48 hours notice to provide owners time to make arrangements.
Supt Russell Gibson said: "We are unable to use tow trucks for these car parks and there are safety issues at these venues. The quickest way for us to work our way through a building is for all of the owners to assemble with their keys. We know this will require some considerable patience but we hope that the benefit of having vehicles back will make up for the inconvenience."
Christchurch Media Liaison Team: 027 432 0960 or ChchPoliceMediaLiason@police.govt.nz
Public Affairs: 04 460 2986 or 04 474 9482