Residents Opposed To Hagley Avenue Bowser

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 11

Residents Opposed To Hagley Avenue Bowser

Residents opposed an application by Thompson Brothers Service Station, Ltd, to a town-planning subcommittee of the City Council yesterday for approval to move an existing petrol station from Oxford Terrace, near the Montreal Street crossing, to 464466 Hagley Avenue. For the company, Mr G. S. Brockett said that the service station, established in 1925, was the city’s original filling station, as distinct from premises selling petrol in cans. The effect of the traffic lights at the intersection of Oxford Terrace and Montreal Street had made the site untenable, and when Oxford Terrace became a one-way street, with traffic flowing eastwards, its problems would grow.

Mr Brockett said that the controlled retail mark-up on petrol limited the amount of money that could be put into buildings and land. From the firm’s point of view, the Hagley Avenue site was a compromise that substantially met town-planning, motor spirits licensing, and pricefixing considerations. A town-planning consultant, Miss N. Northcroft, said the Hagley Avenue site, opposite the basketball courts, was not in a good residential area and would cause little detriment to amenities. Mr R. D. Harrison, area manager for Caltex Oil N.Z., Ltd, said that the Oxford Terrace site had been owned by the Christchurch Dairy Company and leased to Caltex until February, 1967, when it was sold. Forty alternative

sites had since been investigated.

At Hagley Avenue, the firm could expect to sell 25,000 gallons a month, and this would justify the price required. The firm’s turnover in 1953 was 80,000 gallons a year, peaking at 165,000 gallons in 1957. Since the lights had been installed, the gallonage had steadied at 9000 a month.

This gallonage, he said, did not justify economically the payment of $70,000 asked for the Oxford Terrace land. This price would require a gallonage of 35,000 a month to give an economic return. Mr K. H. Thwaites presented a petition of objection from 18 Hagley Avenue and Selwyn Street residents, and three other residential objections were received. The objectors said the area was predominantly residential, that it would spoil the appearance of the street and of Hagley Park, detract from the amenities and cause traffic hazards and congestion. While Hagley Avenue was preferable from a traffic point of view, it would interfere in some degree with traffic, and the council had tried to preserve the area from commercial intrusion, said the council’s planning officer (Mr R. M. Critchley) He did not think the site had been substantiated as the most suitable one, and suggested that a better site might be found in the adjoining industrial zone. The granting of the application was not justified. The committee reserved its decision.