Colombo Street Widening

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28250, 11 April 1957, Page 3

Colombo Street Widening

Sir, —Much has been said about setting back the footpaths in Colombo street, but there is one aspect that the City Council has obviously overlooked. Some of the shops in the affected area have insufficient depth to operate economically if the footpath is set back seven feet. What is going to happen to these shopkeepers? Will the council purchase our shops, and who will meet the cost? It seems to me that the council will be involving the ratepayers in a colossal amount in compensation. —Yours, etc., CITIZEN. April 10, 1957.

Sir.—l notice that in the reports of the last meeting of the City Council it was stated that the McLean Institute had abandoned its proposal to build on the corner of Colombo street and Oxford terrace because of the council requiring the building to be set back seven feet from the present building line. The decision of the institute is to be regretted. Christchurch sadly lacks modern buildings, but it is quite understandable that property owners in Colombo street will refuse to rebuild while the council requisition operates. It is time the council adopted a realistic outlook on some of its town-plan-ning by-laws. Colombo street will in the years to come surely be a street of patched-up buildings, with an irregular, unsightly sawtooth building line, and as such will be a monument to an idealistic but quite unpractical City Council.—Yours, etc., CIVIC PROGRESS. April 9, 1957.