Mt Cook Planning Decision Attacked By Consortium

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32020, 21 June 1969, Page 1

Mt Cook Planning Decision Attacked By Consortium

A decision that Government agencies take over development planning of the Glencoe Fan area at Mount Cook for tourist expansion was criticised yesterday by a private consortium of planning experts in Christchurch which had asked to be allowed •to carry out the planning.

The consortium says it considers it unfair that the Ministry of Works, which did nothing to provide a plan lor development suitable to all parties, should be allowed to carry out the work, when the private group offered a plan approved in six months by all in. terests. The members of the consortium are Messrs, Boyds, Sutherland, Evans and McLeay, consulting engineers; Davie, LovelFSmith and Partners, surveyors and con-

suiting engineers; W. LovellSmith, a structural engineer, who was consultant to the Tourist Hotel Corporation for the Hermitage foundations; and P. J. Beaven, an architect and urban planner. S.I.P.A. PROPOSAL

The proposal that a consortium plan the development originated with the South Island Publicity Association, which predicts a need for 1000 tourist beds in five years and 2000 beds in 10 years.

Plinning for a tourist village in the Glencoe Fan area, adjacent to the Hermitage, was suggested and approved by widely representative interests. A sketch plan was produced. This was a separate proposal from a plan to allow construction of an alpine village for private cottages at Birch Hill Stream, about five miles and a half from the Hermitage. “Last year, a quick, initial study was made to establish a concept for the area, and it was decided dhat a unique tourist village would be both desirable and practicable,” Mr Beaven said yesterday. •Such a village could provifle a community life satisfying the needs of tourists and the sort of active environment most require,” he added. PARK BOARD VIEW Complete agreement with the South Island Publicity Association’s suggested plan for development was expressed by the chairman of the Mount Cook National Park Board (Mr N. S. Coad) last year.,. In a resolution,-the board said it had long advocated the association of high-density development of the Hermitage area for all grades of visitor accommodation with servicing development to be sited elsewhere. The sketch plan produced showed an understanding of the need to preserve the remnants of the bush which .gave the area its distinctive character and ■There had been agreement by tourist-company interests and even the- Minister in

charge of Tourism (Mr MacIntyre) had said that the scheme was the most imaginative he had seen, said Mr Beaven. Mr E. J. Lynskey, the chairman of a special committee on Mount Cook, formed of Government department officials, had indicated then that the committee would look favourably on a proposal to go ahead with planning on this basis. “Now, six months later, we receive from this committee the information that Government agencies should continue the work already started and undertake the over-all planning development,” said Mr Beaven. “RIDICULOUS” This was ridiculous, as the only work carried out by the ministry concerned a landcapability survey of the area. Mr M. F. Foate, the -chief executive of the South Island Publicity Association, said that delays in getting progress on development at Mount Cook had been frustrating. It now seemed that the decision would have to be accepted, as time was running ouL The consortium of experts proposed by the association would have produced something really worth while, he considered.

Jumbo jets would soon be used in the South Pacific, and with the proposed cableway there was an urgent need for a start to be made on more

accommodation at Mount Cook.

The consortium should complete its investigation and draw up detailed plans. Mr J. G. B. Wilson, a consulting engineer, said that the appropriate agency to carry out development was one which was fully aware of the commercial implications. Imagination and a sense of urgency were necessary if the projected influx of tourists into the area was to be catered for. At present 60 per eent of tourists stayed only one night, and development to make the place more interesting for visitors was needed.

To say that the South Island Publicity Association would be consulted on development was merely a sop and gave a feeling of frustration and stifling of private enterprise, he added. Mr Lovell-Smith said he was disappointed but not surprised. The ministry’s attitude was the sort of thing, that if it was a private firm, would be termed unethical, particularly as it had been against development on this particular site. It was unreasonable for the ministry to take on this sort of planning when frequently it said that it was unable to cope with work involved in, say, a new post office or police station. “The place of the Ministry of Works is to be consultant to the country, or an advisory body, which should advise who should carry out detailed consulting work such as this,” he said. Mr Lovell-Smith said he wondered whether Parkinson’s Law was not giving the ministry an inflated idea of its worth.

The decision not to allow the consortium to go ahead was a great pity, as it killed initiative for this sort of thing among other professional consultants. It had never been intended that the consortium should set up as a development com-pany-only that it should carry out the initial exploratory work.

RESOURCES COMPARED “The resources of private consultants are every bit as good as those of the Ministry of Works,” Mr Lovell-Smith said. A private consortium would be much more likely to produce a more imaginative plan than a Government department remote from the scene, said Mr H. G. Royds. Senior professional men would be involved in actual investigation, and planning if it was carried out by a consortium, he said. Not only would the decision kill initiative; it did not use the country’s professional skills to the best advantage.