Council flattens plants sown by volunteers

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 1

Council flattens plants sown by volunteers

By

YVONNE MULDER

“Bureaucratic bungling” had resulted in hundreds of plants given to the Keep Christchurch Beautiful campaign being virtually destroyed, said a spokesman for the campaign, Mr Frank Harvey. The plants were given by the Christchurch City Council’s parks and recreation department and have now been flattened by its streetworks department. Mr Harvey said volunteers had spent hundreds of hours planting the perennials along the Heathcote River, for about 200 m east of the Tunnel Road roundabout on Ferry Road. “We wanted to create an English countryside region of wild flowers,” he said. Members of the Keep Christchurch Beautiful group, formerly known as Civic Pride, were horrified last week to see “big heaps of rubble” thrown on top of the

plants. "A bulldozer blade has gone along and flattened part of the planted area too,” said Mr Harvey.

The council’s streetworks engineer, Mr Bruce Scott, said there had been an oversight in that the community groups involved in the beautifying scheme had not been told that the work was about to be done.

When the planting had been done, the groups were told that road works were planned in the area in the medium term, he said. The road works should be completed within a few months and the council would regrade the land as required and landscape it, said Mr Scott. The area had been greatly improved by the work of the volunteers and he was anxious to see it looking just as good again.