NEW FIRE STATION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28888, 7 May 1959, Page 14

NEW FIRE STATION

Loan Finance Sanctioned

Working drawings were being prepared by the architect and arrangements were being made to finance the new buildings, said Mr W. R. Campbell, chairman oi the Christchurch Metropolitan Fire Board, yesterday, when he learned that the Local Government Loans Board had sanctioned a loan of £75,000 for building a new headquarters fire station in Kilmore street.

The Fire Board already owns the land on the corner of Kilmore street and Oxford terrace and some properties in Chester street, and its plans to build the station there were confirmed after the City Council had heard objections from the nearby Baptist Church’s representatives and ruled that the board could continue with its plans. Mr Campbell said it was not possible to set a target date tor building, but it appea. 1 to him that it would be early in 1961 before the board could move into the new buildings. A lot of detailed work was involved in preparing the working drawings, which then had to be approved, with the specifications, by the Ministry of Works. Then, Mr Campbell estimated, about 18 months would be needed for the actual work after the site had been cleared and levelled. Sale of Land

Preliminary arrangements were already being made for financing the project, he said, and not all the finance would have to be raised by loans. The board would be selling the property it owned in Lichfield street and used as the present headquarters station, and the block of flats in Tuam street. The board used to own all the land from the present station to Barbadoes street, but when it found it could get the Kilmore street site it sold the land to the east of the present station to the Government for £30,000. The Government proposed to use the land for the Post and Telegraph Department’s yards and store which will move from Hereford street when the land there is taken for the town hall site.

Mr Campbell said yesterday that he supposed that t’ e present fire station would be zoned for light industry when the brigade moved out. The flats in Tuam street, built in 1938, would probably remain in a housing zone, but both matters were for the City Council to decide.