PENSIONER HOUSING

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 15

PENSIONER HOUSING

Riccarton plans The Riccarton Borough Council plans to erect 12 pensioner flats in the borough this year and eight a year for the next two years. This information will be conveyed to the Health Department which sought information about the council’s planning. Cr R. S. Lester said that while the Government was making larger grants at lower interest rates, the council should use land in the borough now “going to waste” to double the planned building programme. It was known there was a need for more pensioner housing in Riccarton, said Cr Lester, who urged that the borough give a lead to the country in the establishment of pensioner cottages. Cr D. A. Anderson said the projected figure was adequate for the next two years. Cr J. B. Midgley said that the council was not bound to the stated number. This was what it believed it could finance satisfactorily. He told Cr Lester that no land was going to waste in Riccarton. The Mayor (Cr R. J. Harrington) said that the Government had not reduced its interest rate on money lent for pensioner units. It remained the same as before.

It had to be remembered he said, that when the council built pensioner cottages they were a cost to the borough. The rental of $3.50 a week hardly covered the interest on loan money and maintenance.