The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1971. False economies

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 12

The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1971. False economies

Had the Christchurch City Council and the Commonwealth Games Committee been given an estimate of nearly $2 million as the cost of altering the Centennial Pool when the site of the Commonwealth Games pool was originally decided, the Centennial Pool site would probably have been rejected. In that event. Queen Elizabeth II Park might well have been the sitfe for both the swimming pool and the athletics stadium; and even if the cost of developing the park had been $3 million the city would have acquired, as a legacy from the Games, a complex of sports facilities second to none in New Zealand.

Now that so much money has been spent on demolishing the Centennial Pool, it is too late to reconsider the venue of the swimming events of the Games. The lesson to be learnt from the sorry history of the planning of the swimming pool is, surely, that money spent on altering an existing sports facility can often be put to better use by developing a new one. An article on our back page today urges the development of the Merry Estate as an athletics stadium and the abandonment of the attempt to alter Lancaster Park. The writer of the article estimates the cost of the Lancaster Park alterations at nearly $1 million.

If that estimate is within 20 per cent of the mark, altering Lancaster Park to provide a temporary stadium would be an even poorer investment than the $2 million to be spent on enlarging and covering the Centennial Pool. A million dollars would go a long way towards providing Christchurch with a much-needed all-weather Olympic track with adequate spectator accommodation and associated amenities. This, at least, would be a permanent monument to the 1974 Commonwealth Games and a permanent asset to the city.