Pools project defended

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 18

Pools project defended

The writer of a letter to “The Press” who criticised the plans and cost for the proposed new Hanmer Springs pools has drawn a reply from the engineers and architects, defending that proposal. ,

The project was described by the letter-writing. “Last Resort” as a product of “starry-eyed do-gooders” and an exercise in “architectural extravagance.” The engineers and architects, in a joint statement, have replied: “If he had taken the trouble to inform himself on the details of the proposal by studying the joint report of the consulting engineers, Royds, Sutherland and McLeay, and the architects. Lucking and Vial —issued as a brochure by the Canterbury Progress League—he would not have rushed into print this way, nor would he have insulted the two firms by the use of inverted commas over the word ‘experts’. SEVEN POOLS “The engineers, sometimes with the collaboration of architects, have been responsible for the design of seven municipal pools, including the Waltham Lido Pool for the Christchurch City Council, while the architects are no less professionally experienced in the field of public amenities," their statement says. “The designers intend to make the best possible use of the limited supply of thermal water by using it for a group of 12 individual spout pools and a small hot pool, but at the same time using parts of its heat to raise the temperature of fresh water in a larger swimming pool and a paddling pool. The proposal had been unanimously approved at a public meeting of Hanmer Springs residents, and also by the Hanmer Thermal Pools Development Association. “The cost of $150,000 is by no means extravagant. In fact, the facilities have been designed to a minimum standard consistent with attracting tourists both from New Zealand and overseas, j The Prime Minister (Sir, Keith Holyoake) was im- i pressed with the proposal, , and has complimented its pro- • moters and designers.

WRITER CHALLENGED “If ‘Last Resort’ is so professionally clever that he

could do the job for half the cost, he owes it to the community to emerge from the shelter of his anonymity and produce his detailed plan and estimates of cost. “The engineers and architects will be glad to consider it,” their statement says.