CIVIC CENTRE PLAN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 8, 5 October 1943, Page 4

CIVIC CENTRE PLAN

City Council To Receive Combined Committee MAYOR MENTIONS A GRAVE OBJECTION The Wellington Citizens’ Combined Committee, representing several civic bodies, will be given the opportunity shortly of presenting its open civic plan to a meeting of the Wellington City Council. The council decided this yesterday. , Even if the combined, committees plan was a balanced one, and ho was advised that it was not, the grave objection was that it could not be proceeded with for years, said the mayor, Mr. Hislop. There were leases with 17 and -0 years to run on sites which were part of this plan and the only way to get a civic block now was to start on the Town Hall area. Cr. M. F. Luekie said that it was of more immediate practical value to have the administrative officers under the one roof than to talk about the importance of beautification from an individual’s viewpoint. It was no use wasting time; why not tell the combined committee straight that the council could not alter its plan and it had to go on, said Cr. R. A. Wright. The mayor said it was better to allow the combined committee to present its plan than to decide not to hear it. That would only create a sense of grievance. There were several points which had to be made, said Cr. M. Fraser. First, the essentiality of adding-the administrative block to the Town Hall as opposed to any plan envisaging an administrative block opposite. To go elsewhere, as was suggested, would delay action beyond a reasonable time. If there was to be an open civic centre space it should be in front of the Town Hall, not behind it. The combined committee’s plan started at once on a civic centre; the council’s plan did not. There might be something in that; the fact of the council’s plan starting with no open space. Next, there was the essentiality of having all the administrative offices’in the Town Hall.