USE OF TOWN PROPERTY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27916, 13 March 1956, Page 8

USE OF TOWN PROPERTY

Legislation Sought By Residents RESIDENTIAL AREA PROTECTION Residents Affiliated was circulating a petition seeking legislation on the uses to which property could be put. said the president (Mr M. A. Connelly). The petition says: “There is an urgent need for legislation to enable local authorities, in appropriate cases where the public interest is involved, to have a say as to the use to which land and buildings are put. “Experience over the last decade shows that residential areas, in particular, need some protection from smoky, noisy, chemical fume emitting, and other obnoxious forms of industry, which constitute a danger to public health, and which do severe damage to homes—blackening the paintwork, rotting curtains, and leaving deposits of disease-laden dust. . “Slum areas are likely to develop in suburbs unless local authorities are given some power to arrest this process. Ageing and depressed areas need special attention. Problems that Linwood, Phillipstown and Sydenham face today, are likely to arise in St. Albans, Papanui and Fendalton in the future, if the position is allowed to drift.’ Human values and health are at stake. “The haphazard development of industry destroying residential areas at a time of housing shortage, is rendering useless valuable services with many useful years of life ahead of them.

“As the population moves out, schools, churches, community halls, and residential drainage, transport and telephone services are nullified. A n example is the fine Sydenham School, capable of taking 1000 pupils, which only has a roll of about 500 although there is pressure in the newly-developed outlying suburbs for more classroom accommodation. “All this, constitutes a waste of rates, taxes and gifts which have contributed to building these services, and a demand for yet more taxes and gifts in outlying areas to provide new and necessary services there. •“The public, in general, realises the need for the legislation the petition seeks, and hundreds have already signed the petitions now circulating. “In order to cope with the demand, Residents Affiliated will man a booth m Cathedral square next week to give citizens the opportunity of signing the petition,” says the petition.