CIVIC CENTRE PLANS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 17, 15 October 1943, Page 6

CIVIC CENTRE PLANS

Committee’s Third Approach To City Council WOMEN GIVE THEIR VIEWS For the third time the Citizens’ Combined Committee, on AVcdnesday night, waited on the AVellingtou City Council regarding the proposed civic centre. 1 bis time the deputation broke new ground m its composition by including six womeu. No councillor expressed any opinion favouring the deputation's views, nor was there any discussion on them after cae deputation withdrew. Instead, before the council went into committee at 12.25 a.m. yesterday the mayor moved that, the Government Town Planner, Mr. J. AV. Mawson, be asked to consult with the council. There was no discussion on this and it was carried. The council will, however, have to discuss at its next meeting Cr. J. D. Sievwright s notice of motion, reported yesterday, for a committee from both sides, with the town planner, to confer and report for the council's guidance. The point was made by the deputation that the citizens’ committee was a disinterested body'which from a sense of public duty and responsibility to future generations had burned the midnight oil and prepared plans at the expense of citizens who had voluntarily contributed. It asked that the council receive its representations with this in mind. Mr. 11. S. B. Fletcher, the leader, asked that the deputation’s views be examined free from the hostility whica frankly existed ou the part of certain councillors. The provision of open spaces in congested areas was a guiding principle in modern town planning, The citizens committee did not claim its Plan to be perfect, but it was a practical indication of what could be achieved for a resttul open civic centre in an aesthetic atmosphere. Opposition to its plan appeared based more on expediency and a reluctance to upset plans already prepared by the council’s panel of executive officers, architects and Cr. F. AV. Furkert. . There was strong evidence ot this opposition on the part of executive officers who, in his view, had been allowed muen latitude. He sympathized in their desire to be properly housed, but posterity should not be subordinated to expediency. Before proceeding further the council should place all data and plans before a combined committee for critical analysis and a report to a further meeting ot the C °MrsJ' A. J. du Pont introduced Mesdames J. A. Doctor, H. Brown and G. 1. Davidson and Misses A. Kane and ACooper as representatives of womens organizations. She said that many other leaders of women’s societies, when, able to contact their committees, would support the combined committees efforts tO obtain a sheltered open landscaped place for the benefit of this generation and those to come. The open space contemplated in the council’s plan was windswept and too distant from the congested areas to provide a safe place in event of emergency. There was no area in the city where women with children or elderly persons could rest. Mrs. Doctor quoted what was bun,, done by the London County Council in planning for open spaces. Mr. E. Richardson said that after addressing the council before he got tae idea that some councillors were hazy about the committee’s plans and having a council plan, were determined to carry A U councillor: That’s not very compliCr. M. F. Luckie: He’s a realist. Captain S. Holm questioned if the council’s plan made room for the CltJ s certain growth of the next ,2o years He had the authority, of a Minister to say that if the council and the citizens agreed to retain the triangle as an open space the Government would make no c aim on this area for a district health office, but if the council built where it planned the department would probably proceed with the repair of its buildingCr. R. McKeen, M.P., expressed the opinion that the Government would not desire to be introduced into tue uis CU Cr? n E. M. Gilmer : It’s a case of “if we build, they’ll build. . To Cr. R. A. AV right, Captain Holm replied that the citizens’ committee would use its best endeavours, it its proposals were adopted, to see that lessees of buildings on council land which would be affected did not make unreasonable demands on the council. He did not think the council would find any lessees unfavourable to the plan. . Mr. Fletcher : Is the council going to sacrifice posterity for the sake of the immediate future? Ours is a front yarn civic centre: not a backyard one. To a question ns to whether the combined committee would abide by the decision of a committee, if such were set up. Captain Holm replied “yes, we would have no alternative.” , CClie mayor, Mr. Hislop, asked it tn. deputation felt that the half-acre open space at the back of the Town Hall, which its plan proposed, was prefetab.e to the two acres at the front which the council’s plan provided. ~ Mr. M. G. McCaul, a member ot thdeputation: You’ll never get the two aC Th'e mayor: I must ask you to remain silent or leave. , Continuing, the mayor said that the council recognized that the commi.tee.s plan was the result of long and careful study and that it desired the best solution’of the question at issue, lhe same applied to the council, which made the same careful study and was actuated by the same motives. It would consider the representations and decide whether another committee should be set. up to go into the matter anew. I.ossibly -pmc fresh blood could be introduced, u liatever view (he council took the committee could be assured that. the. council was out to do the best for the city.