Front fence demolished without warning

Press, 6 October 1987, Page 7

Front fence demolished without warning

The owners of the Heatherlea homestead in Deans Avenue are angry that the front fence of the property was demolished for road-widening on Thursday without any warning. There had been no letter, visit, or telephone call to say that the fence was about to come down, said the co-owner of Cain’s Caterers, which runs the homestead as a reception venue, Mrs Karen Clarke. The contractor was replacing the fence on Friday, on the new boundary line. Mrs Clark said that they had received an apology from the Riccarton Borough Engineer, Mr Peter Nichols. Mr Nichols blamed the

misunderstanding on the unexpected speed of the contractor, and the fact that Heatherlea is about to change hands. The contractor for the kerblng and channelling work demolished the fence and front gate early on Thursday morning. Cain’s discovered it about 9 a.m. Mrs Clark said that they had known of the roadwidening for some years. It was the subject of a Riccarton Borough Council town-planning hearing years ago, but there had been no further notification since then.

Heatherlea has been bought by Brittco Properties, which plans to re-

move the homestead and build a 13-storey apartment block on the site. Brittco will take possession at the end of the month.

The council had not expected the contractor to get to the site before then, Mr Nichols said. The council had therefore been dealing with the new owner in negotiations over compensation for the road-widening and relocation of the fence. Brittco wanted to retain the fence for security purposes while develoment was underway, he said. The contractor, however, finished the Hagley Park side of the kerbing in three days instead of the three weeks the council expected.

"It is a very big embarrassment,” said Mr Nichols. “We have been dealing with the wrong owner really.”

Mr Nichols said that he had been trying for some days to get in touch with Mrs Clark, but without success. Finally, he had only one day’s notice that work was about to proceed at the Heatherlea site.

“In hindsight, we should have told the contractor to delay his gallop,” he said.

Mr Nicholas said that only one other property would be affected, but the contractor had not yet reached there. Negotiations were continuing with its owner.