Six-Storey Flats.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19806, 19 December 1929, Page 10

Six-Storey Flats.

It is rather late in the day now for the City Council to consider whether it should or should not authorise the erection of a sis-storey block of flats at the corner of Hereford street and Montreal street. The application was granted on December 2nd, when, if it wa« not given full consideration, it ought to have been. The matter came before the Council in a report from the Town Planning, Housing, and Health Committee, and the clause read: '• A preliminary application has been '• received for the Council's approval " of the erection of a six-storey block " of flats on the south-western corner of Montreal street and Hereford " street. The plan provides for a " building of good appearance, the flats " being of one and two rooms with all conveniences. In view of the fact " that the erection of a somewhat " similar type of building has been per- " mitted on the north-east corner of " this intersection, the Committee re- " commends that the proposal be ap- " proved." The clause was adopted without comment, and, it seems not unfair to add, without reflection or understanding. If it occurred to any members that there were points which called for consideration, they gave no sign of it; but in fact there were several, including the unusual height of the building, its possible effect in shutting off the sun from residential properties nearby, and the desirability of authorising one-room flats, which the Auckland City Council rejected. It is impossible to say, of course, what decision the Council would have reached on these and perhaps other points, if it had paused to consider them; it passed them over, though all the facts were before it or available. The Council will now find it most difficult to justify a claim to reopen the question and change its mind, as is indicated in the Mayor's reference to the Town Clerk's opinion, that the Council would be " liable for heavy damages if it inter- " fered at the present juncture." Citizens will probably feel that they have been presented with a curious example of decision and anxious afterthought instead of thought leading to decision; and they may also think that it illustrates the necessity of some public notice of certain kinds of municipal business. There are cases, of which this is apparently one, where citizens are entitled to some notice of what is proposed, before the Council perfunctorily commits itself and them. Committee reports are held to be confidential until they come before the Council, and the only information available to the citizens is that contained in tie programme of business published on the morning of the Council meetings. Since that programme seldom if ever gives even the bare effect of a report, citizens are left in ignorance of what may be done until it has been done and they are more or less helpless. But the oddest feature of the present business is that the report on which the Council acted, on December 2nd, was signed by the councillor, as chairman of the Committee, who on Tuesday night moved to rescind the authorising resolution.