"ONE-ROOM FLATS"

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 228, 26 September 1929, Page 7

"ONE-ROOM FLATS"

INQUIRY IN AUCKLAND. SPECIAL COMMITTEE. APPEAL BY PROMOTERS. GENERAL EVIDENCE INVITED. A public local inquiry is to be opened in Auckland on Wednesday, October P, at 10.30 a.m. in order to secure evidence for the consideration of the Town Planning Board in rcspect of the appeal which has been lodged by the company which is promoting the erection in Vincent Street of a block of flats which have come to be designated "one-room apartments." It is proposed that the six-storeyed building shall contain 53 apartments, each containing a large living room with a bed folding into the wall, also a small dressing room, a kitchenette, a bathroom and a small entrance hall. The City Council, on the recommendation of the Town Planning Committee, decided at a recent meeting to decline permission for the erection of the proposed building, on the ground that the plan did not provide for sufficient air and room space, also that the solicitor for the company, Mr. J. Osborne-Lilly, subsequently intimated that an appeal would be lodged with the Town Planning Board in Wellington and that if such appeal did not succeed the promoters were prepared to make application to the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus. A communication from Wellington was received to-day by the town clerk, air. <T. S. Brigham,"from the Director of Town Planning, Mr. J J.' W. Mawson, as follows: "An appeal has been lodged by Marlborough Mansions, Ltd., against the determination of the Auckland City Council in refusing a. permit for the erection of a block of flats in Vincent Street in the city of Auckland.

"In order to suit the convenience of all parties it is proposed to appoint a committee of three members of the board to hold a public local inquiry in order to secure evidence for the consideration of the board at its next meeting. I discussed the matter with Mr. Bloodworth (chairman of the Auckland Town Planning Committee) this morning and it was agreed that the inquiry should be held at 10.30 a.m. on October 9. "The proceedings of the inquiry, to some extent, will be informal, but the parties may be represented by counsel if they so desire. In addition the City Council and Marlborough Mansions, Ltd., it is possible that various social organisations or individual citizens will want to give evidence, and with this in view I am to ask you if you will be good enough to advertise the time and place of the meeting in two consecutive issues of two of the Auckland newspapers. "It would be a great convenience if you could arrange for the inquiry to be held in a room in the Town Hall and for a competent stenographer to take down the evidence." It is understood that the request for the inquiry to be held at the Town Hall will be complied with.