New fight against Polytech, chimney

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 6

New fight against Polytech, chimney

The council of the Christchurch Polytechnic will appeal again against a Government committee’s decision to have a boiler house with a tall chimney built on the Polytechnic’s Madras Street campus. The council’s chairman, Mr C. Russell, said at a council meeting last evening that the Government committee’s decision was “pretty disastrous.” If the ■ boiler house were built, a chimney about five storeys tall would go with it. The Polytechnic’s director, Mr J. D.. A. Hercus said that such a chimney would be an “environmental disaster.”

The council plans to use a photographic montage to show how a tall chimney would clash with sourrounding buildings, such as the Catholic Cathedral in Barbadoes Street. The Christchurch City Council, the Institute of Architects, and the Education Department agree that such a chimney should not be built. ■. Mr Hercus said that the council would enlist the help of those bodies and “that most important of allies, public opinion,” to fight the proposal. The Government committee which made the decision

on the boiler house is called the inter-departmental committee on fuel and power. The committee makes decisions when Government departments need big power facilities,. It decided two years ago that the Polytechnic should have a coal-burn-ing central boiler. The council lost its first appeal against the decision a year ago. In its second appeal. it will argue that a coal-fired boiler would be unacceptable on economic and environmental grounds. The council wants any large central boiler to be electric.