TRANSPORT BOARD TO SEEK BUILDING LOAN
An application to the Local Government Loans Board for sanction to borrow £256,000 is to be made by the Christchurch Transport Board. The board decided this at a meeting yesterday afternoon.
According to the resolution the board passed, the loan money will be for the erection, extension, and modernisation of buildings for overhaul machinery, paint and body shops, stores, and staff quarters; . together with the purchase and installation of plant, machinery, ana equipment to be used in them.
Two board members who spoke to the resolution expressed misgivings that the whole of the money might be raised immediately; especially for a big new building programme that might not- be warranted. Tfiey said that tne board should move cautiously and not until a thorough investigation had been made for each step.
The board chairman (Mr C. C. Holland), who moved the resolution, said that he was sufficiently young in the quasi-political field to be still impressed by the a™°unt the board sought to raise. Mr Nash and Mr Watts might talk glibly in millions, but £256.000 was still a big sum by any standards. “Proposal Justified”
Although the proposed development and improvement programme “must cost a lot of money and for some time be some burden,” Mr Holland said he was convinced that the proposal was justified and that the loan would be repaid. Expenditure of money on a scheme such as this was recognised as progress. The resolution at this stage was merely a matter of form. If it was passed, it did not mean that the board would rush out to raise £256,000 immediately, or anything approaching that amount. No contracts would be let. “It does not mean anything more than a request for permission,” Mr Holland said. “If we are given permission, we canthen go ahead if we decide as and when the need arises.” Mr Holland said that the timing of actually raising the loan would have to be carefully planned, in view of the board’s other commitments. “For the next five years we have to go on paying for the tramway system which has already disappeared.” In the next few months, Mr Holland said, the board would be able to claim without fear of contradiction a fleet of motor buses second to none. Such a fleet carried its obligations; namely, maintenance, which could be done only by good staff working in good conditions with good tools and equipment. It was for this it was proposed to borrow, but
everything would be done in stages, and it was proposed to investigate each stage by sub-com-mittees of board members. Seconding the resolution, Mr G. D. Griffiths said that expenditure of the money when raised would probably be over a period of three or four years. The present buildings in use were not suitable for four-wheeled vehicles which had to be manoeuvred through a maze of supporting posts. Further Study Suggested “I am glad to have the assurance that this is no more than a formal matter,” said Mr E. J. Bradshaw. “I believe this particular phase of the board’s modernisation scheme should be given very much more complete study. Having modernised its fleet, the board owes an obligation to Christchurch to keep the fleet up to a better standard than the trams were kept.” The board’s building programme was another matter altogether. Was the board’s big rebuilding scheme warranted, in view of the future? Was it warranted in view of transport trends in relation to the board’s operations? Mr Bradshaw asked. And the transport system as a whole? he added. “The buildings are old, and modernisation is needed, but whether £256,000 or anything like that is needed is another thing,” he said. Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon endorsed Mr Bradshaw’s remarks. When put to the meeting, the resolution was carried without dissent. Mr Holland declared it to have been carried unanimously.
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Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 3
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649TRANSPORT BOARD TO SEEK BUILDING LOAN Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 3
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