Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

Next year you will have the opportunity to choose between two types of siren for council to warn you during a civil defence emergency (including tsunami).

Our staff are beavering away on getting the likely costs and coverage by February to help us make an informed decision.

The first option is for rates-funded outdoor electronic sirens which will be fixed on poles like they have been in some Christchurch and Auckland suburbs. Early estimates indicate these may cost $2.5m to install.

The second option involves in-home sirens (working a bit like a smoke alarm); early estimates indicate a $500,000 to $1.8 million installation cost which could be partly funded via rates, or totally user-pays. We could even consider a mix of both outdoor and indoor options.

The chief benefits of both these systems is that they can deliver voice instructions as well as an alerting tone.

However, my preference has always been for outdoor air-raid sirens because they are a tried and true (think WWII) method of warning and have lower ongoing maintenance costs over the decades. Unfortunately, this third option didn't gain the support of a majority of councillors; largely because government is trying to have a consistent ‘national standard' for tsunami sirens around the country.

Cr Bill Grainger and I aren't satisfied that air-raid sirens have been excluded from consideration so things could change, but like anything in council, you need a majority.

Keep in mind any sirens will be in addition to a text message system that government is working on.