The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1971. Two acres of parkor 608 trees?

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1971. Two acres of park—or 608 trees?

Regrettably, the “road through the park” seems likely to become one of the maia issues in the election for the Christchurch City Council this year. The Labour Party is evidently determined to play on the fears of Christchurch residents that North Hagley Park is to be irrevocably impaired by the proposed realignment of Harper Avenue. Mr McGuigan’s denial notwithstanding, this is not a new road; part of the present Harper Avenue is to be closed, tom up, and planted. Because of the greater length of the realigned road, it will occupy two acres more of parkland than the present road. But the Labour Party’s suggested alternative would sacrifice 608 trees in Bealey Avenue and Fitzgerald Avenue to provide a wider carriageway. The Citizens’ Association has refused to give ground on this issue; Mr Guthrey, opening the association’s election campaign on Wednesday evening, rightly placed the Harper Avenue deviation among the five-year development proposals put forward by the association. The new Town Hall, to be opened in the term of the next council, is already an impressive pile on the banks of the Avon—and a reminder of the capacity of the Citizens’ Association for progressive civic planning. The continued development of Christchurch International Airport, a project with which Mr Guthrey was associated many years before his election as Mayor, also owes much to the active support of Citizens’ Association councils over the years.

Nowhere is the Labour Party’s paucity of ideas in local government more apparent than in its attitude to the planning for the Commonwealth Games. While it is regrettable that so much of the planning has been held up by delays in decisions on several venues, the Labour Party has resisted all appeals to make the Games a non-partisan issue. Unless they show a last-minute change of heart, the Labour candidates for the City Council will announce on Monday night that they still oppose the construction of the Commonwealth Games swimming pool on the site of the Centennial Pool, although work on this site has already begun. Even those who originally opposed the Centennial Pool site might stop short of voting'for a party which shows such scant respect for the law of contract or commercial morality.

This year’s elections may well be the last to be held for some of the present local bodies in Christchurch. Although the Local Government Commission’s final plans for the reform of local bodies in the region will not be published for some time, it will be surprising if the commission does not recommend the absorption of some of the smaller local bodies and the regrouping of others. Mr Guthrey jokingly said that he did not care “ whether “Waimairi takes over the city or the city takes “Waimairi over”; and it is to be hoped that, whatever proposals are brought down by the commission, their reception by the various local bodies will be guided by tjie interests of the metropolitan area of Christchurch as a whole. The parochialism that has stultified earlier well-considered proposals for the reform of local government in Christchurch should be disarmed, to some extent at least, by the unanimity of the Citizens’ Association and the Labour Party on the desirability of a system of election by wards.

It is a pity that the Local Government Commission's proposals could not have been prepared in time to be discussed during the election campaign. They would have given added interest to the elections. There is, perhaps, some satisfaction to be found in the controversies over the road through Hagley Park and the Commonwealth Games venues; these issues have caught the public’s attention, and should encourage more people to vote than in most local body elections of recent years.