The Press THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1961. A Wise Decision On The Town Hall

Press, Volume C, Issue 29516, 18 May 1961, Page 14

The Press THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1961. A Wise Decision On The Town Hall

The Christchurch City Council has been wisely guided by its town hall committee in deciding to seek the advice of Sir William Holford, the eminent British town-planning authority, on the siting of the future town hall and civic centre. The council’s failure to take this step earlier can be explained by a proper reluctance to reopen the question of alternatives to Cambridge terrace when successive councils, on the best technical advice obtainable within the city, had repeatedly affirmed it as the best available site.

Clearly the council would have been failing in its duty to govern if it had thrown open the question to debate —let alone a poll —by the general public. The maturely-considered plan would have been at a hopeless disadvantage against the coalition of all those who favour other sites, however unsuitable or impracticable, with those who oppose the idea of a town hall for reasons that range from genuine doubt of the city’s ability to pay, down through apathy, ignorance, selfishness and parsimony, to plain contrariness. If the question of site had to be reopened at all, clearly it had to be reopened to consideration by an authority better qualified—not worse qualified—than those who

have so far spoken from their technical and aesthetic knowledge. The city will indeed be fortunate if it obtains the services of Sir William Holford to help shape a city of which future generations will be proud. He might not endorse the Cambridge terrace site or, indeed, any of the sites that have been suggested during the long and tiresome controversy that has plagued the project in Christchurch for many years. But the engagement of the famous planner of modern London and of progressive cities in many parts of the world will at least ensure that a good site is not passed over for an inferior one. Ostensibly, at least, most of the opposition to the Cambridge terrace site has been based on the ground that it is not the best site. That objection could not be sustained—except by those who always claim to know more than the experts—in the face of the considered judgment of such a man as Sir William Holford. Finally, the decision can be welcomed for . its promise of bringing unity out of the present disastrous dissension, resolution out of the prevailing apathy, and an assurance that citizens of the future will not have reason to blame the present generation for niggardliness or lack of vision.