Controversial main hall seen as too small

Press, 29 July 1978, Page 16

Controversial main hall seen as too small

The building planned by the Malvem County Council as a county sport and social centre will have a total floor area of about 747 square metres, of which, according to published plans, 211 square metres will be occupied by the main hall. This hall has been one of the controversial elements in the design, and a number of ratepayers have expressed the view that it is too small. It is smaller than the Tawera Hall at Springfield (231 square metres) and even than the Darfield High School hall (223 square metres), but is substantially bigger than the present Darfield Hall, which is only 155 square metres.

Tlie council is confident that the new hall will serve the district adequately at least into the next century.

The building will also contain meeting rooms (four were planned for, but this number may be reduced as a result of submissions made to the council at recent public meetings), a supper room, kitchen, foyer, and the other usual facilities, as well as shower blocks and changing rooms for the

sports bodies. The latter facilities are the only ones exclusively for the use of sports bodies — which will be putting $70,000 into the complex. A walkway will connect the building to the existing squash courts. The plans do not include everything that the interested organisations have asked for. There is, for example, no provision for a gymnasium. But according to the County Clerk (Mr Brian Perrin), the council planned the centre with an eye to close co-operation with the Darfield High School, and has already had talks with the school’s board about greater community use of the school’s facilities 1 — and the sharing of the council’s facilities with the school.

A gymnasium is one of the projects on the high school board’s list. The total estimated cost of the recreation and social centre is $350,000. The contribution of the sports bodies, which are well on the way towards raising it, and a Government subsidy of $30,000 will leave the council to find $250,000. Of this, $50,000 will

come from the county hall reserve fund, which the council has been squirreling away, and $50,000 from land subdivision —> or so the council hopes. Land sales have slumped and there is now a question mark hanging over this source of revenue.

The council acknowledged this at its last meeting, and if the subdivisions now on the drawing board do not sell the council will have to pull in its sights and cut something from the building, or raise the money in some other way. The remaining $150,000 will come from rates — $lOO,OOO from a special rate on the whole county for the next two years, and the balance from the ‘•inner area” around Darfield over another four years.

For the ratepayer, this means an additional charge of $3.70 per $lO,OOO of the value of his property. The council says this charge will definitely cease over most of the county in two years, but the county chairman (Mr G. E. Wright) has not been able to assure ratepayers that their rates will be cut after two years. He told a public meeting that it was

likely the $3.70 would be absorbed in other increases. * Originally the council had planned to raise the $150,000 by loan, but it dropped this proposal after a petition was presented to it calling for a poll on the matter. Not only will the new method of financing save the county $300,000 in interest charges over the next 30 years, the council says; the switch has saved the $lOOO that it would have cost to have a poll.

One criticism of the plans is that no provision has been made for a county library, but this is a separate project as far as the council is concerned. Once the new centre is completed it will probably look at the old Oarfield Hall as a library site, and as an interim measure may knock down the oldest part of the hall, and keep the sound part, doing the necessary work to make it suitable for use as a library.

As the library is envisaged at present, it will be a well-founded affair, with a full-time professional librarian and a generous share of the council’s budget for the purchase of books.