CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18016, 7 March 1924, Page 8

CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS.

FUTURE DISPOSITION. It is hoped that in another month or two the new municipal administrative buildings in Manchester street, erected on the site of the Canterbury Hall and partly with the same material, will be ready for occupation by the different staffs which at present are quartered in the Council Chambers, Worcester street, and in other offices nearby. When the changeover takes place, the auxiliary offices now rented will be vacated, and the Council Chambers will go out of use for city purposes. The Council Chamber property, however, will still remain in the ownership of the city according to the terms of the trust creating the reserve, and it is the intention of the Council, acting under statutory authority, to lease the building to suitable tenants at a fair rental. Tenders were recently invited for a ten-year lease. The time for receiving the tenders closed yesterday, and such as came to hand will come before the Council on Monday night. The original intention was that the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, the Canterbury Progress League, and the Canterbury Industrial Association should combine to become the joint lessees for the purpose of establishing their headquarters and their respective offices in tlie building. That idea, however, appears to have fallen through, for at the last meeting of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce it was reported that the expected co-operation was not now forthcoming, and the view taken by the Chamber was that they could not independently take the lease of the property.

Should it therefore happen that no tenders were received, then it is lijcely that a proposal"will be made to the Council for the extension of the proposed lease from ten to twenty-one years. In that event it is hoped that the Chamber of Commerce, in view of the improved tenure, may yet agree to take the lease, with the possibility of the other organisations joining in later.