Tenders Not Called For Police Station

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 1

Tenders Not Called For Police Station

lenders have still not been called for the first stage of the $2.5m block for the Christchurch Central Police district headquarters and Central Police Station.

As far as can be as-1 certained, the plans and estimates from the Ministry of Works have not yet been put before the Cabinet works committee and the Cabinet must approve plans and estimates before tenders can be called. In the meantime the police are working from three separate sites with a considerable cost in rents and increased use of transport and telephones for taxpayers. Liaison between the C. 1.8. and uniform branch is made more difficult by the branches working from different sites. The uniform branch works from a building which policement consider should have a demolition order put on it and a collection of old houses. The C. 1.8. works in a building Public Service Association has suggested is unsafe. The administration officers work from the Harbour Board building. 1967 ANNOUNCEMENT On June 20, 1967, the Minister of Police (Mr Allen) announced that construction of the building would begin in the 1968 financial year. He said that the building would comprise a three-storey podium topped by a 10-storey tower, and in August, 1967, released a sketch plan of the impressive building, the first move in a three-stage building plan to replace the 96-year-old, run-down, leaky, draughty Central Police Station. Tenders for the demolition of the buildings on the site of the proposed new police block at the comer cf Hereford Street and Cambridge Terrace were called in August, 1967, and the site was cleared in September.

to 1968 the district office of the Christchurch police and other sections were moved to the first floor of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, and in April members of the Criminal Investigation Branch moved to the Social Security Department building in Hereford Street. The C. 1.8. premises in the! [central station were demolished in May. 1968. REASON GIVEN On September 28, 1968, Mr Allen said that the delay in building the new police block and tower was caused by the Christchurch police asking for alterations to the plans. This request was made in August of that year and no subsequent request for alterations has been made. Mr Allen denied that Government commitments in university buildings, the court

block for the Justice Department and Post Office planning might have established new priorities. He confirmed that the new Christchurch headquarters and Central Police Station block was top priority in the Police Department building programme.

On October 28, 1968, Mr Allen said that a firm estimate for the first stage of the new complex, the podium and tower block, would be ready late in November. He again denied that enforced allocation of priorities in recent years in Government building had caused the delay. Mr Allen said on January 25, 1969, (hat it was hoped to let a contract within a few months, but that it was likely to be let later than March 31.

Woman Sought—The police ask that anyone who has seen Mrs Ngaire Kathleen Daly, aged 55, of Rex Street, Riccarton, since Monday should get in touch with the nearest police station. Mrs Daly, who has been missing from her home since Monday, is believed to be travelling in a 1966 Vauxhal! 101. painted pale blue with the registration number DW 6810. «