Council faces crisis

Press, 22 August 1977, Page 1

Council faces crisis

The Aged People’s Welfare Council was facing a money crisis “and could well be forced to curtail some of its activities if additional sources of finance are not found as a matter of urgency,” said the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) at the week-end. He was opening a new centre for the council in North Avon Road. Capital spending on new projects had risen, and benefits from legacies had not been as great over the last year, Mr .Hay said. He acKnowledged “generous

assistance” from service clubs and Golden Kiwi lottery grants to the Welfare Council. But he said the help would have to be “substantially increased,” and he hoped the council’s present $3OOO grant could be raised. Mr Hay also opened the Rolleston House Youth Hostel, which has been running for almost two years. He said it would be “quite a time” before the City Council needed the site for more parking. The council bought the $135,000 site near the Arts

Centre for parking, but it was able to allow the hostel to go ahead in the meantime. Parking areas were built around it. It would be some years before the council needed the entire site for ground parking or a building, “but I feel I must remind you that this will eventually arise,” Mr Hay said. Councils had a responsibility, he said, “to preserve as far as possible houses and commercial buildings from the bulldozer when they can still perform a useful economic or social function, even if some renovation is necessary.”