A historic Wellington church, which has been closed for more than two years because of earthquake risk, is getting the biggest share of the council's heritage fund for strengthening work.
St Mary of the Angels Photo: Wikicommons
The church, St Mary of the Angels, has been granted $400,000 from the Wellington Council's $700,000 fund for this year.
Parish Priest Barry Scannell said the church needed to raise $9.5 million to make the building safe.
"So far, we've been working very, very hard over the last year and we've currently raised about $6.1m, and the generous contribution that council has made has really helped us enormously," Fr Scannell said.
St Mary of the Angels is one of 10 heritage buildings in Wellington to receive council funding for earthquake strengthening.
Wellington Council transport and urban development committee chairman Andy Foster said it was important to make the city as safe as possible.
"We want to put ourselves in the best possible shape if there's a significant earthquake to be able to survive... and to have the city functional afterwards.
"We can't afford to have what happened to Christchurch to happen to Wellington."