A close community

Press, 9 March 1978, Page 19

A close community

Cheviot has always bad a tightly knit community. Situated 150 km from Christchurch and 75 km from Kaikoura, the town (population 1500) has a battle to provide its own social and business services. A look at the community shows that the battle is being won by Cheviot residents. A medical centre will be opened this month in April to provide facilities for a doctor, dentist, physiotherapist and Plunket Nurse. The town’s doctor (Dr R. J. Haythornthwaite) is pleased with the North Canterbury Hospital Board’s decision to spend $30,000 to convert the former Cheviot hospital into a medical centre.

“It is definitely a benefit to Cheviot,” he said. “At the moment Cheviot people have to travel to Christchurch for their dental and physiotherapy sera vices, this entails a 75 mile trip and a day off work.” A dentist will consider making a monthly trip to Cheviot and a local man will take over the physiotherapy department, he said. One of the best illustrations of Cheviot community’spirit, however, comes from a Mayoral contest. A brain child of the local Lions Club, the contest is designed to raise $15,00 0 towards a $45,000 extension to a new gym-nasium-cum-assembly hall for the Cheviot Area School. The Cheviot County was divided into four mayoralties and each sector had the task of raising $3OOO. So far some groups have exceeded this figure,The contest is planned to end later this month. A questionnaire recently circulated in the Cheviot township by a community services investigative committee, tapped the area’s

needs and presented submissions to the Cheviot County Council. Better shopping facilities, a need for further education and craft train’ ing, and more job opportunities were some of the questionnaire’s requests. A public meeting to discuss ways of improving the community will be held on March 20. The committee’s chairman (Mr P. Le Cren) hopes to get a good turnout from the area. By the time the meeting is held.however, some of the needs voiced by the been answered, questionnarie may have A group of four shops is planned to open in the near future. Foundations have already been laid beside the Cheviot Museum on McQueen Road. The shops will include a butcher, craft and food shops, and possibly a pharmacy. When it was announced that tenders were going to be called for the block, the county chairman (Mr R. G. Anderson) said they were a “great step forward for the community.”