VISION, COURAGE, ABILITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 257, 17 August 1950, Page 4

VISION, COURAGE, ABILITY

INTERESTING ADDRESS TOWN-PLANNING EXHIBITION OPENED The spirit behind town and country planning was informed by three great qualities, those of vision, courage and ability, said Miss Nancy Northcroft in an address at the opening in Ashburton last evening of the British Council’s town and country planning exhibition. Miss Northcroft traced the beginning and development of such planning to the worn of Patrick decides in England from 1910 onwards. The speaker nad spent recent years in Britain studying the subject, and had been privileged to see many of tne pians represented in the exhibition in course of development. The war, it was emphasised, had not created the need for planning, but one of its contributions to tne good of. England had been the teaching of comradeship and co-operation, a condition and attitude necessary for successful planning, which was not’ imposed from above, but produced by the people who realised a need and had both the vision and the courage to seek to fill it.

Progress in Britain

Planning had made progress since the war, for much preparation had been made ere peace came, but people were already dissatisfied with tne Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 in certain of its aspects and details, and mostly at the slow pace imposed by the complex difficulties in the way. One must remember, said Miss Northcroft, the British capacity for self-criticism and the tremendous leeway to be made up because of destruction during the war. Yet 14 new towns had been planned to relieve the congestion of London alone, and in eight of these construction had started; and in the sauare mile of the City of London £12,500,000 haci been spent in buildings in line with the plan for London. The whole project was not “just a planner’s dream.” Private research, too, had done much, working in conjunction with universities and business organisations. Miss Northcroft said she was pleased to hear that Ashburton was tentatively planned, for planning in both town and country was just as necessary as in Britain, though for different reasons. New Zealand’s problems were those of an underpopulated country with spreading development of towns and lack of planning in villages and in the country. The inter-relation of town and country was vital, and the co-ordination of such costly amenities as railways, hydro-electric schemes, irrigation works and the like equally vital. . . “Just Nonsense” To say, as the speaker had heard it said, “It is too late in New Zealand” was just nonsense. If planning could be carried out in a country over 1000 years old, with 50,000,000 inhabitants, surely it was possible in a country of fewer than 2,000,000 people and only 100 years old. Those who studied the exhibition would find the slogan “Survey before plan” exemplified. She trusted, said the speaker, that New Zealand authorities would take that as their guiding principle. She hoped that Ashburton people studying the plans and models on display would catch something of the spirit of vision, courage and ability. The meeting was' chaired by Mr S. G. Macfarlane as president of the Community Centre, and the exhibition was formally declared open by the Mayor, Mr E. C. Bathurst. / A vote of thanks to the speaker was carried by acclamation on the motion of Mr A. D. Lowe.