Chief P.O. ‘shabby’

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 4

Chief P.O. ‘shabby’

Christchurch city councillors want to know the latest plans for the Chief Post Office in Cathedral Square. The council’s town planning committee voted yesterday to tell the Post Office it was disappointed with the level of maintenance on the old building and to ask for an explanation of plans for it. The council had already approached the Post Office about the “shabby and unpainted” roof and bargeboards. The Post Office replied that only essential maintenance was being done on the building pending a decision on its future. Cr Mollie Clark said that deterioration of the building

was being hastened “almost beyond the state of no return.” As with other old buildings in the city, the post office would cost “a terrible amount of money” to restore if it was let run down now, she said. Cr Helen Garrett agreed. “Shabbiness in the central city makes a very bad impression on tourists and visitors to the city,” she said. The committee’s chairman (Sir Terence McCombs) said he believed discussions on the building’s future were not “dead.” However, if the old building’s value was depressed by maintenance being run down the council might be able to get it at a lower price.