Some Kaiapoi residents are refusing to leave their earthquake-damaged homes, saying they will turn down the Government's buy-up deal.
More than 100 people gathered to protest the Government's deal in the North Canterbury town yesterday afternoon.
The Government has said it will buy the house or land on about 1000 red-zoned properties in the Waimakariri District and 5000 in Christchurch labelled too badly damaged to be economically repaired.
The scheme requires land owners be off their properties by April 2013.
But some residents would reject the offer and try to stay put in their homes no matter what, said rally organiser Brent Cairns.
Hundreds of red-zone homeowners took part in a Waimakariri District Council survey, and 5 to 10 per cent said they would turn down the proposed buy-up, he said.
With more information and options circulating around the community, more people were interested in staying and rebuilding the damaged infrastructure, Mr Cairns said.
He said he wanted to have the community re-surveyed as many of the 920 residents didn't take part in the original survey but wanted to stay in their home.
Mr Cairns said he would contact Waimakariri District Council chief executive Jim Palmer and National Party MP Kate Wilkinson today to ask the council and community work together the re-zone the land.
"We want to work with the council to re-survey everyone to see who wants to stay. Ideally, we want to go back to prior to June this year and stick with the Waimakariri Council plan to remediate and rebuild in Kaiapoi.''
Mr Cairns said there were plans to rebuild the township before Earthquake Recovery minister Gerry Brownlee stepped in in June this year.
"The Kaiapoi region already had plans in place to actually fix it, plans already developed with the community in mind. We were well on our way to getting back on our feet well before anyone else.''
He said it would be extremely expensive for people to find another piece of land in the area, and would be more economic to reconstruct the township.
He said Mr Brownlee was misleading residents and potentially defrauding people of their land.
"At this stage we haven't actually been told why we have to get off our land.''
Yesterday's protest focused on a range of issues, with many calling for access to detailed geotechnical reports on their land.
A series of rallies and a continual asking of questions is the only option for many desperate to stay in their homes, he said.
"This is why we're organising these rallies because we can't fight them in a court. We have no rights under the legislation, we don't have any opportunity for judicial review.''
He said another rally was scheduled in Bexley on October 9.
"They are broken people, and the pain hasn't really even started yet.''
