Timaru rebuilding opposed

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 5

Timaru rebuilding opposed

A battle is looming between property developers of Timaru’s Stafford Street and a new organisation, the Timaru Civic Trust, which will be formed at a meeting this evening.

The proposed Civic Trust wants to see the late Victorian. early Edwardian buildings which line the main street preserved, while the A.N.Z. Bank and J. Ballantyne and Co., Ltd

want to demolish and rebuild. Ballantynes’ plan is to replace its 71-year-old three-storey structure with a two-storey building. But Mr J. D. Stanley, a valuer in Timaru who is one of the founders of the Civic Trust, said that when the trust was formally established it would call for the retention of the Ballantynes building. “We want it preserved,”

he said yesterday. We are looking at Timaru as a whole and we have a collection of buildings which is unique. Ballantynes is one of the best of them.” The Timaru Manager of Ballantynes, Mr M. P. White, said the present building was too big for Ballantynes’ needs, and something new was required along the lines of the Christchurch shop. The cost of

maintaining and improving the present building would be too great. Further down Stafford Street, the A.N.Z. Bank hopes to demolish its building, including several adjoining shops between Beswick and Strathallan Streets. Mr Stanley said the proposed A.N.Z. development was “totally out of keeping with the character of Stafford Street.”