Community Hall For Westburn School

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30602, 19 November 1964, Page 13

Community Hall For Westburn School

The Westburn Primary School in Waimairi road, near the end of Greers road, will be the first in Canterbury to get a hall to be shared by the school and its community under a pilot scheme of the Government to cater for high-density housing areas.

The Government has approved the erection of six such halls—two in Auckland, two in Wellington, and one each in Christchurch and Dunedin. Three will be in State housing blocks and three in areas of private development. Westburn falls in the private category, being in a vast new housing area which extends from Memorial avenue almost over to Yaldhurst road. So far, apart from churches, there are few communal centres in the district. Details of the scheme and of the halls have still to be settled. But it was announced

earlier that the price limit would be £12,000 for each hall met by the Housing Division, Education Department, and Golden Kiwi lottery fund. In State housing areas it was proposed that the lottery fund provide £BOOO and the Education Department £4OOO. A £ for £ subsidy for up to 100 seats for each hall has been proposed but additional seating, furnishings, and kitchen equipment might be the responsibility of local people. It is envisaged that the halls will be managed by representatives of the school committee and the local community. In the meantime a planning committee of representatives from the Education Department, Internal Affairs Department, and Housing Division in Wellington is preparing an architectural brief for the halls and this will be submitted to education boards as a basis for working drawings. It is not yet known when the Westburn hall will be started.