Case put for more land at Ham

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 3

Case put for more land at Ham

A case for the extension of the Christchurch Teachers’ College Ham site by more than 10 acres has been prepared by the college’s council.

In a report, prepared at the request of the Under-Secretary of Education (Mr Gair), the council has asked for an early meeting with the Education Department to discuss extension of the present 26 acres. The council has called for an immediate recognition of the growth problems of the college. The land being sought by the college is in two sections: a nine acre block to the south of the present college carpark, bounded on the south by Parkstone Avenue and on the west by Solway Avenue; and a IJ-acre block lying between the western boundary

fof the Ham site and Solway Avenue. Outlining the development of the college, the council said that this had been and still was a good example of what happened when little margin was allowed for even the most conservative estimates of growth. Before the move of the secondary division of the Teachers’ College to Ham in 1970, the central site had had to cope with a situation where prefabricated lecture rooms outnumbered permanent teaching space. GROWTH ESTIMATES “At present the problem is restricted to a shortage of general and specialist teaching and lecture space, but with the advent of the primary division on the site (by 1975) it will inevitably become a shortage of land on which to place the ‘shortage’ of accommodation. Regrettably, the Ham site already has five temporary buildings ion it,” said the report. The college was likely to have to take over the training of pre-school teachers; there would be a greater involvement of the college in inservice training of teachers and extensions for special education requirements were inevitable. I More parking space for cars was needed at Ham. Christchurch’s lack of peripheral transport services and the dif. ficulty of finding accommodation for students demanded that more land be made available for residential accommodation. The council emphasised that once houses were placed on land, near the present college site, applications for more land would be unrealistic, with figures of between $20,000 and $30,000 for a 20perch section. It also noted that secondary schools with rolls of up to 1200 were more adequately provided with land than teachers’ colleges. (The combined primary and. secondary teachers’ college roll will be more than 3000 by 1975.)

Asked to comment on' the of the college site, the town planning officer for the Waimairi Gounty Council (Mr R. M. Parker) said that there would be no problems as far as the county council; was concerned if the college; decided to extend its land. “It’s certainly obvious that they do not have enough land,” said Mr Parker.