Bid to reject plan for Hansen Park fails

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 9

Bid to reject plan for Hansen Park fails

A bid to reverse a decision to allow Hansen Park to be used as a softball headquarters failed at a Christchurch City Council meeting last evening. However, any work at the park will be delayed until after August when a full town-planning report will be finished. Parking, traffic, and alternative venues will be studied in the report. A meeting between residents and representatives of the Canterbury Softball Association was suggested. Nearby residents will also be asked to make submissions on the park’s use. Cr Alex Clark said work should not begin until full discussions had been held and detailed reports finished. The Canterbury Softball Association wants to build an artificial diamond in the eastern corner of the park which would be enclosed to enable admission charges. Earth

mounds and spectator seating would be provided within the enclosed area. A building with changing rooms and social rooms is also planned for the park. Cr 7 Clive Cotton said that last month’s decision to approve the plan in principle to use the park as a headquarters for Canterbury softball should be reversed and alternative venues studied. A move to have the decision reversed was lost by 14 votes to four. It was regrettable that polarisation had grown and the council’s decision to grant permission before discussions with residents had been held had aggravated the problem, said Cr Cotton. The council needed to go back to “square one” and constructive discussions be held, he said. Residents who opposed the plan formed the Opawa-St Martins Neighbourhood Committee to

fight the use of the park as a big softball venue. The committee objects on the grounds that it would attract too much traffic and congest streets in the area, create too much noise, and restrict public use of the park. The site of social rooms, which could get a liquor licence is too close to houses, according to the committee. However, in a report to the council the Softball Association’s executive rejected alternative venues. All of the association’s planning had been centred on Hansen Park and alternatives offered by the neighbourhood committee were not fully investigated, said the report. The suggested park in Annex Road was not expected to be available for up to 20 years and the money needed to prepare the ground in the meantime was “out of the question.”

Queen Elizabeth II Park was being developed as a commercial recreation area and would be unsuitable for softball. The Bexley landfill area would take too long to prepare and tire council had other plans for the land, said the report McLean’s Island was too far out of Christchurch, which would prevent some schoolchildren from using a softball ground, and not much land remained for development. The claim that 96 teams and up to 300 people could use the park was rejected in the report. Only 22 teams would compete in a national championship and only 168 people could play at one time. The council chamber’s public gallery was filled to capacity with, at times, vocal supporters and opponents of the council’s original decision.