Founded by Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki, the coalition has already failed to settle the $14,117.47 invoice due on January 20 for costs it incurred when staging three anti-mandate protests in Cranmer Square and other city locations in November and early December.
The coalition, which is led in Christchurch by Destiny Church senior pastor Derek Tait, was sent another invoice last week for $10,579.89 to cover costs related to temporary traffic management measures for events on December 11, January 8 and January 22.
The January 8 protest was staged in Hagley Park before the gathering marched along Riccarton Rd.
The deadline for the latest invoice to be paid is March 20.
The bills, now totalling $24,697.36, were sent to Tait but a city council spokesperson said there had been no meaningful acknowledgement from him or the coalition regarding payment.
The city council has previously indicated they can seek to recover the costs through the district court but action will only be taken once all invoices are overdue and another will be calculated after the coalition organised a march from Cranmer Square through the central city last Saturday.
Meanwhile, the ongoing occupation of Cranmer Square, which the city council says is not connected to the coalition, hasn’t generated any significant costs.
“We are only invoicing for traffic management costs that council has incurred as a result of the protest marches,” the council spokesperson said.
Residents, council staff and police met last Friday to discuss the occupation, which began on February 14.
“It’s definitely a holding pattern, it’s fair to say,” he said.
McLellan had heard from many people claiming they would be moved on if they independently set up a tent in Cranmer Square and attempted to placate them.
“You’d probably be given short shrift but the point I make to people who say that is if you refuse that short, sharp telling off from our enforcement team, probably not much would happen after that point.
“It’s interesting. We kind of think we have to follow the rules otherwise bad things happen to us, but sometimes that’s just not true.
“We have an enforcement team for bylaws, normally they would go down and say ‘do you guys know you’re in breach? Here’s a notice’ and that’s as much as our enforcement team would do.
“Then it’s up to the police, and really that’s the point it’s fallen over,” McLellan said.
The police, he added, were “being particularly cautious because of the right to protest”.
Unlike the occupation outside Parliament, the Cranmer Square community had been peaceful to date.
McLellan attended Friday’s meeting and said residents were told there were plans in place if the situation started resembling the stand off in Wellington.
“They made the case the residents could be in for a lot tougher time if police were to go in their with the riot squad,” he said.
