We have also consulted widely with the public and the people with a direct stake in keeping the inner city alive and vibrant.

We may not have done enough to spell out the realities of what happens in places where inner city decline is allowed to go unchecked. Cities die when they ignore the problems of declining inner centres. The inner city collapses into a morass of crime, neglect and decay. Sometimes the surrounding city survives to become a "doughnut" city with a hollow heart. At other times the collapse of social and economic cohesion is enough to send the entire city into a spiral of decay, decline and desertion.

Another bleak fact that I have learnt is that cities that don't take charge of their own destiny and direction can just fade away in today's fast-moving world. It may be wounding to our vanity as a city to even entertain the idea but the reality is the wider world owes us nothing. If we in turn offer it nothing people will see no reason to visit here. We need to bear in mind that while we debate Christchurch's future we need to look at the issue in the wider context of the South Island. If Christchurch's centre becomes a seedy, unsafe environment through neglect we will have stood by and allowed the future of the entire South Island to become one of decay and decline.

It is not a role I fancy for us in the history books. Do we want to be seen by future generations as being so afraid to act that we squandered the achievement of past generations because we were too timid to take charge of our own destiny? Nor is it an achievement that I think would impress the early European settlers of Christchurch and Canterbury. When I stood in St Paul's Cathedral in London recently representing this city at our 150th birthday celebrations in England I felt the full force of history in action.

Our city founders had a bold vision of a cohesive society that retained and built on the best of the society of their times. The strength of this vision was why this settlement succeeded and prospered while other less-well-t thought-through colonial dreams collapsed elsewhere in the British Empire.

The good news is that people are already acting with courage and prudence.. Commercial property sales are about the only bright light on the horizon of a very flat property market at present. Private investors are making their long-term decisions about their investments in the inner city because, in part, this Council has been brave enough to send out the right signals of commitment and leadership.