Govt decision awaited on C.G.H.S. site

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 21

Govt decision awaited on C.G.H.S. site

By

LIZ ROWE

When Christchurch Girls’ High School moves to its new site in Deans Avenue next year it will leave vacant a valuable piece of real estate in the central part of Christchurch.

The large (8.4 hectare) site in Cranmer Square is in an excellent position — close to the Arts’ Centre, the Museum, the Peterborough Centre, Hagley Park, and the city centre.

Buildings on the property include an historic two to three-storey classroom block, a hall, a threestorey science block, a swimming pool, and a number of small buildings. There are about 20 classrooms, six laboratories, and numerous other rooms.

Not surprisingly, more than one group of people or organisation would like either to buy or get control of the property once the school moves.

The property is now administered by the Education Department, which is not a trading department. It has no say in the future of the buildings once Girls’ High moves. In the normal course

of events, the property and buildings would be declared surplus to Education Department needs and passed to the Lands and Survey Department for disposal. This is what happened to the Old Normal School (now being developed into luxury apartments) and the Old Teachers’ College (now administered by the Arts’ Centre Board as the Peterborough Centre). When it was announced in 1983 that a new Girls’ High School would be built, money from the disposal of the present site was to be offset against the cost of the new buildings, to the tune of an estimated $BOO,OOO. However, various factors have intervened since then and it now appears possible that the site may be retained for educational purposes, or at least passed over to a trust to administer on behalf of the people of Christchurch. “When people hear that a Government is moving out of a site, they start ringing or writing in, asking what will happen to it,” says the regional superintendent of eduction in Christchurch, Dr

Colin Knight. “In this case we had a lot more requests for use of the site than usual.”

The requests came in three categories:—

1: Commecial uses,- ranging from radio stations to churches and computer companies. 2: Educational and community uses.

3: People who did not want the site for their own use, but wanted the historic buildings to be preserved. “By melding the second two we could see there could be sufficient justification in retaining the property for educational uses. It seemed an opportunity for some of these groups to be consolidated on a central site,” says Dr Knight. Last October, the Christcurch office of the department sent a preliminary paper to the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, outlining the submissions it had received and asking him to consider retaining the site for educational purposes.

Mr Marshall circulated this paper among local members of Parliament in December, to find out their opinions. All the Christchurch M.P.s were basically in favour of retention.

The Minister then asked for a public announcement to be made that submissions from interested parties would be considered, to give an opportunity for fresh submissions.

This was done in April and a committee of three was formed: Dr Knight, National’s Phillip Burdon of Fendalton, and Labour’s Margaret Austin of Yaldhurst. The committee sifted through about 35 submissions, from groups which wanted only a room to those who sought total use of the site for a specific purpose. The committee’s main purpose was to be assured that if a group was given control of the site, it had the experience and financial background to look after it. The committee’s report was sent to the

Education Department in Wellington, which has prepared its own report — all of which is now with Mr Marshall. A final decision on the future of the site is up to Mr Marshall and the Government.

The Education Department in Wellington is fairly confident the Government will decide to retain the buidings, says the director of buildings, Mr Mel O’Byrne.

“While not wishing to pre-empt a Government decision in any way, we have been working on the assumption that the Government will look favourably on retention under some sort of scheme.

“One of the essential decisions to be made is whether it remains an educational property or whether it is made over to some other group to administer on behalf of the people who are tenants.” says Mr O’Byrne.

Treasury approval would be necessary to retain the site and to forgo the expected receipts from its disposal.