TOWN-PLANNING IN RICCARTON

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 6

TOWN-PLANNING IN RICCARTON

Businessmen Give Views

A proposal that the Riccarton Borough Business Association should have representation on the Riccarton Borough Council’s town planning committee was rejected firmly by the Mayor (Mr E. J. Bradshaw) last evening. A deputation from the businessmen met the council to express its views on planning in the borough. Better lighting, under-veranda lighting, more parking areas, and the prevention of what he called ribbon development were listed by the president (Mr O. G. Walker) as the association’s main desires.

Chief spokesman for the association was Mr S. Collins, who said that while the association’s ideas might be prompted by selfinterest, it was considered that they would also be of benefit to the borough.

Parking, he said, could be improved by the removal of trees for a short distance along side streets off Riccarton road. Some trees had been removed, but there should be more.

The association hoped for better street lighting, but realised that shortages of labour and finance might be involved. It hoped that the council would investigate under-veranda lighting, for it understood that in some other places local bodies had cooperated with businesses. Shopping Spread Of the spread of small shops in “oases” along the main road, Mr Collins said it might be possible to have some minimum standard for shops, and perhaps a stipulated depth. The time could come when the footpaths would not be wide enough and shops would have to lose some of their frontage. That would be much more easily achieved if there was a greater depth. As an interested body, the association hoped that it and others interested could be co-opted to the town planning committee, and thought that would be for the good of the borough, as the council would then have the views of all interested.

Thanking the association for its interest, Mr Bradshaw said the council was firm in its stand that it would do the planning required. “We are elected to do this job, which is a very important one,” he said. “The powers we are given have to be used properly, and those who do the job have to have broad shoulders.” To bring in outside representation from persons who might be in competition with affected parties would be quite wrong, the Mayor said. “We don’t shift our responsibility, and we don’t look to do so ”

Everyone would be happy if it was possible to start with a vacant property as a borough, but the council had to' take over an existing state of affairs and plan round it, he continued. The council could stop -the expansion of the one-shop depth shopping areas, and proposed to do so.'

Advising the deputation to put its views in writing, the Mayor said the council would be considering the planning scheme shortly. He reminded them that they had the same rights as everyone else to object to the plan when it was published.