TOWN-PLANNING PROBLEMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 646, 24 April 1929, Page 18

TOWN-PLANNING PROBLEMS

WHANGAREI’S QUANDARY (From Our Own Correspondent) W HANG ARE I, Tuesday. Mr. J. \V. Mawson, Director of Town Planning, addressed a meeting of public bodies in the council chamber this afternoon. Tlio Mayor, Mr. L. J. Brake, who presided, stated that the Town Planning Committee had been studying the question locally and had prepared the ground for a scheme. The scheme itself had developed on satisfactory lines until they reached a point where the present Act left them in doubt as to wliat authority they had to take the next step. He expressed the desire of the borough, which wuo rapidly growing, to secure a central site for a civic square. When, however, they were confronted with the problems of finance and purchase and betterment, involved in securing a desirable site, they found themselves baffled. He’ asked if Mr. Mawson could suggest anything to guide them in their difficulty. Mr. Mawson stressed the point that amendments of the Act were under consideration by the Town Planning Board for recommendation to the Government. In the meantime he suggested that the vital need was to secure co-operation and co-ordination in the wider scheme of regional planning, and until this was accomplished and amendments to the Act made clearer what was possible in town planning, it might be better to postpone the development of town schemes. Mr. Mawson addressed a public meeting in the Town Hall in the evening.