Railway Row deal for NZR & Council

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 343, 10 July 1990, Page 1

Railway Row deal for NZR & Council

$200,000 would be needed to upgrade Railway Row in the Ohakune Junction area and New Zealand Railways can't afford it. But between them and the Ruapehu District Council the street may have a future. Railways would need to upgrade the road and services and provide footpaths before they would be allowed to subdivide the area and sell the railway houses in the street on site. Their alternatives, until now, have

been to sell the buildings for removal or lease them on site. Mayor Garrick Workman met with Rail Properties representatives last week to discuss various Railways problems. He told the Waimarino Community Board last Thursday that Railways may be prepared to hand over a small block of forest at the North end of Ruapehu Road if the council took on the subdivision of the station housing area. Councillor Bill Peach said it was important to try to retain the stock of low cost houses, because there was little

available elsewhere in the town and there was a desperate need for low cost housing. He put forward a suggested proposal whereby Railways would sell off the houses on-site and give $10,000 per house to the council for a fund to later upgrade the street, once enough funds accumulated. He said Railways would stand to gain because selling the houses on-site rather than for removal would fetch a much better price. Cr Peach said the council should also look at the forest offer, with the land it was on being a possible future council refuse dump.