RICCARTON ROAD DECORATIONS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27208, 27 November 1953, Page 10

RICCARTON ROAD DECORATIONS

ABOUT £l2OO TO BE SPENT WORK OF COUNCIL AND BUSINESSMEN Riccarton road, from Deans avenue to Clyde road, a distance of about one mile and an eighth, is to be gaily decorated for the visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Mr C. E. Trippner, chairman of the Riccarton Borough Council’s Royal visit decorations committee, said last evening that Riccarton was concentrating its decorations on Riccarton road as the Queen and the Duke would pass along the road three times during their visit. Inclusive of a Government subsidy of £lOO, the council is spending between £4OO and £5OO on decorations, but through the generous assistance of businessmen and firms who had given labour and materials worth hundreds of pounds, Mr Trippner said he expected that the completed decorations would probably be worth about £l2OO.

In the Riccarton shopping centre, in addition to decorating their own shops, businessmen working through the Riccarton Businessmen’s Association, in co-operation with the council, will be decorating the street with shields, coats of arms and bunting, but elsewhere on the road bunting will be dispensed with and decorations will be in semi-permanent materials. Many unsightly electric power and telegraph poles will be camouflaged by coneshaped wooden frames painted red, white and blue, which are now being built in the council yards. The cones are surmounted by coronets from which greenery will protrude. Over the road there will be about 24 strings of coloured lights. A start has already been made to put up this lighting. Along the street there will be special features at several points. At Shands crescent an illuminated crown about eight feet tall and 12 feet wide will be placed at the top of the 80ft high water tower. At night Mr Trippner believes that the lighted crown will be visible 50 miles away. It is hoped to place the crown in position next week. An elaborate coat of arms on an elevated platform is also to be placed on the reserve at Shands crescent. The woodwork for the decoration was being prepared at the council yards yesterday and the coat of arms design will be painted during the week-end.

At the entrance to the borough at the intersection of Deans avenue and Riccarton road, shields will be erected on the poles on either side of the road in addition to the cones. At the council chambers in Clarence road a crown, coat of arms design and bunting will be used to decorate the building. The council is arranging for the floodlighting of St. James’ Church and the Disabled Servicemen’s Re-estab-lishment League’s centre, and it is expected that some other buildings in the borough will be floodlit by private arrangement. Some of the greenery used in the Riccarton decorations will come from the West Coast. Lycopodium collected by schoolchildren at Ross and Ruatapu will be sent to Riccarton.

Messrs John Doudney and R. LovellSmith are acting as art advisers to the council and are preparing coloured sketches of the decorations. The art work has been done by Messrs C. M. Tregonning and S. Collins. The assistant engineer of the council. Mr K. Thomson, is in charge of the preparation of decorations.