The cathedral in Christchurch is what happens when you get bogged down in procrastination. 

Of all the good Christchurch has done, and there is so much to be proud of, there remains well over a dozen years later some glaring holes, probably the biggest of which is smack in the middle of town. 

A simple question to start - if we hadn't waited 12-plus years to not make a decision, would the bill be what it is today? 

No. 

Another question - is all the angst and upset and fighting and bitching worth the end result, which so far is nothing? 

No. 

So, what have we achieved? We have worn ourselves out with arguing and lawyers and protest and back and forward, and how much further on are we here in 2024? Not much. 

So, what has been the point? My sense of it was it was always going to be a slightly contentious sort of debate. Religion, money and a city all mangled up in an argument was fraught. 

But I never in my wildest dreams thought we would take so long to do so little. 

There is no excuse. It's everything that happens when you get a committee involved. You become paralysed. 

Three options always gave you the predictable road to nowhere; rebuild it new and different, build something a bit new and a bit like the old one, or do it right and build what got damaged. 

That, of course, was the correct thing to do. But in this day and age, with associated lack of labour and skills and money, going to get done. 

As we sit here now with the story of a mothballing I think most of us would accept anything is better than a 12-year scrap that led no place. 

One argument, and I am increasingly heading towards it, is flag it. 

Christchurch is big enough, new enough, bold enough and vibrant enough not to need a cathedral in the centre of it. 

It’s a nice nod to history and its origins, but if the guardians can't get out of their own way then flag it and move on. 

And in 100 years no one will know the difference, nor will they care.