The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1937. THE BLOT ON THE PLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 201, 25 August 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1937. THE BLOT ON THE PLAN.

For the cause that tacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we cmn do.

With one exception, and that a vital one, the recommendations of the City Council's town planning committee for the development of the Domain are unexceptionable. The committee has adopted the long-term plan proposed over three years ago by the city engineer, Mr. J. Tyler, and it recommends that with the funds now offering a beginning should be made with the work. Specifically, it proposes that a number of existing carriageways, one mile and a quarter in total length, be closed and the areas now occupied by them added to enlarging the playing fields; that the development of the arboretum be started, that formation and planting be carried out in front of the Museum, and that the existing drive from Stanley Street be realigned. These are all desirable improvements, although in j respect of the Stanley Street drive the Council might well inquire into the possibility of making a separate pedestrian path. The traffic on the road will increase with the years, pedestrians cannot be prevented from using it (nor should they be), and they are no safer when walking on a motor road because that road is within a Domain.

The committee declares itself in agreement with the contention that there should be no further encroachment on the Domain, and it rightly claims that some of its recommendations 'will result in terminating some existing encroachments. Yet, flying in the face of this principle and it-s own wise proposals supporting it, it recommends that preparations be made for constructing another motor road. This decision is as inexplicable as it is anomalous. The committee is "definitely of opinion that motor roads, as such, should be restricted to the minimum necessary to serve ..." the Domain generally. It "recognises that the vehicular requirements of the playing fields and Museum do not at the present necessitate the completion of the new drive," but it thinks that eventually the drive will be necessary. It does not attempt to meet—it does not mention—the objection that the drive will inevitably be used as a through traffic route. That objection, indeed, is unanswerable, and it ought to have been decisive. The committee's proposal apparently is that the new drive should be prepared, but not surfaced and opened, but this is much less innocuous than it seems. Once the principle is accepted, and preparations for the road are made, this Council or any future Council will be able to order the completion of the work and defend itself by saying that it is merely doing what has long since been approved.

As the City Council has still to consider the' committee's report, it should reflect that as the Domain Board it occupies a special position of trust. Its duty is to preserve the character of the Domain unimpaired, and particularly to prevent obnoxious encroachments. The proposed motor road is such an encroachment, because, even if it were necessary (and the committee admits it is not now necessary) it will be used, whatever the intention or wish of the Council may be, as a through traffic route, which will become ever more important and congested as the years go on. This Council should decide that it will not take the responsibility of opening the way to such a development.