Flats in Arts Centre?

Press, 16 July 1987, Page 9

Flats in Arts Centre?

The Arts Centre Association wants better communication between the Arts Centre Trust Board and the association. That was the call yesterday by members of the association when they met to discuss the proposal to put 30 tourist flats in the roofspace of the Arts Centre. They felt they had not been kept up to date with plans and were disturbed that they did not know of the proposal until after the trust board had already commissioned a feasibility study. The association has four representatives on the trust board, which owns and administers the Arts Centre on behalf of the people of Christchurch. These include the chairman of the trust, Mr Peter

Dunbar, and the trust board’s architect, Mr Don Donnithorne. They were at yesterday’s meeting to answer questions. Mr Donnithorne has temporarily withdrawn from the board while he is preparing the feasibility study. Mr Dunbar reassured the meeting that the proposal had been properly considered by the board. It had merit enough to warrant further investigation and that was what the board was doing in commissioning the study, he said. Association members queried the authority of the association and the board in the making of decisions about what happens at the Arts Centre. A move to have the assistant registrar of charitable

trusts review the activities of both organisations was lost. Members decided to discuss the proposal further and make their feelings known to their representatives on the board. Mr Dunbar read the proposal as it was put to a trust board meeting by the director of the Arts Centre, Mr Christopher Doig. Benefits included financial returns; disadvantages included some risk in borrowing initial capital. Mr Dunbar noted that an alternative proposal for accommodation elsewhere on the Arts Centre site had been put by a tenant, Mr David Thornley. It would be considered with the other proposal, he said.