Latimer Square And Road Plan

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 14

Latimer Square And Road Plan

No land for reading could be legaUy taken f rom Latimer Square because of an act of 1877! which said that the land must be reserved for use as a public garden and promenade, said the chairman of the council's parks and recreation committee (Cr P. J. Skellerup) yesterday.

Cr Skellerup said that the 1 council should buy land east" of Latimer Square in order . to resite it, or should con-j-

aider putting Madras Street under the square, rather than go ahead with the present plan, which would eut half an acre from the square. Latimer Square should not he reduced. With increased population and traffic, the open spaces in the city would become more and more invaluable. The 1877 act, the Christchurch City Reserves Act,

r says in section 2 that the ! “parcels of land described in 1 the first schedule shall be • and the same are hereby in- ’ vested in the Mayor, councrl|lors and citizens of Christ- . church for the use of the inhabitants of the City of l, Christchurch as public gar- ! dens and promenades, subject . to such rights of roads and 1 streets as now legally exist 1 over the same.” • In the first schedule is “All that plot of land known as Latimer Square bounded

on the north by Gloucester Street, on the south by Hereford Street and on the east and west by roads one chain ! wide.”

t The council could not set a aside the law in taking land t from Latimer Square, Cr . Skellerup said. As far as he 1 could ascertain, the 1877 act hal not been repealed. Wort cester Street, going through d the middle of Latimer Square e was not mentioned in the act, d but a chainman’s drawing i- indicated that there was a road through the middle of t- the square in 1877. 1, The portion of Madrasi

Street in the proposed realignment for one-way traffic would go through the . eastern corners of Latimer Square at an angle of 45 degrees and take half an acre from the square, at present comprising four acres in two; blocks of two acres divided by Worcester Street, Cr Skellerup said. He said that the original plan for making Madras Street a one-way traffic route, included closing the portion of Worcester Street through Latimer Square. This would have joined the two parts of the square and given- land back to the square to compensate for the land taken for the new line of Madras Street.

However, the proposed closing of the Latimer Square part of Worcester Street had been the subject of objections under the Town and .Country Planning Aet, and it was not the present intention of the council to close that part of Worcester Street In fact, the council could not do so until the objections, that the street was an arter-

ial car and bus route to the eastern part of the city, had been disposed of, said Cr Skellerup. At the City Council’s meeting this week, after objections by Cr Skellerup, who raised the 1877 act, and by Cr H. L. Garrett, who objected to any part of the “green land” triangles cut off from the square by Madras Street going through the eastern corners being used for parking, the proposal was referred back to the city development committee Madras Street and Barbadoes Street form the second stage of the City Council’s scheme for one-way streets round the city centre. The first stage, already in operation is Lichfield Street and St Asaph Street. The second stage is due to start in May. The City Engineer (Mr P. G. Scoular), questioned at the City Council’s meeting on Monday, said he did not think that the start of the second stage would be delayed if the Madras StreetLatimer Square plan was referred back.