Drainage Board’s Own Sanitation Criticised

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28385, 18 September 1957, Page 12

Drainage Board’s Own Sanitation Criticised

Sanitary arrangements alone in the Christchurch Drainage Board’s buildings would scarcely be passed by the board’s own inspectors, according to an industrial consultant who has made a preliminary survey of the board’s operations. “It has been said that nineteenth century buildings make for an old-fashioned outlook,” the consultant said in the survey presented to the board last, evening. “Whether that is true or not, the

staff here are working under a severe handicap in their present quarters.

"However, the new extensions appear to do little to improve the position except to provide more space. The public, including investors, can hardly be impressed

with a sense of efficiency whilst staring at the dark paint and wooden screens which face them as they wait for attention at the counters. If screens are essential, why could they not be of glass? "A business, even a drainage board, must sell itself to the public; The public can only judge by what it sees, and what it sees here is rather grim. "Unfortunately the board would appear to be committed now to the present buildings, and we can therefore only recommend that early attention should be given to Lthe inside appearance and amenities,” the report said.