N.Z. Experience for Chch park?

Press, 2 April 1988, Page 5

N.Z. Experience for Chch park?

■ ! 4 . • J I J . | . |•; I 4) n The developers of Picton’s multisensory tourist attraction, The New Zealand Experience, want to build a similar attraction at Christchurch’s Queen Elizabeth II Park.*’ ’44- 4 i 4.4’14 4’ " 1 !

They have approached the) J 1 Christchurch City Council with their proposal} ! ! The directors of the New| Zealand Experience Corporation,; Ltd, Messrs Barry Meikle and’ Frank Mitchell, said that a development in .Christchurch wo;uld be a logical expansion! of their Pictort show. They) will (present their proposal to Tuesday’s parks and recreation committee . meeting. ‘‘Since the council is looking for potential tourist and domestic enter-, tainment at; the park, we want} to offer The New Zealand Experience as a contender., Being indoors it I would be suitable for the )j park's varying weather : patterns,” Mr Mjeikle said. (The financing of the venture had not yet been examined but Mr Meikle did ’ not believe finance

would be a problem if the council felt the proposal was worth while.;

The i corporation was keen for a reaction to the concept, from the people of Christchurch,j;; rather than i from (pressure groups, he said. |( j

; :The New Zealand Experience at Picton took two years of planning and has been open for a year. Its has :used some of the latest computer-controlled audio visual technology developed' by a! London firm. Electrosonics. The | chairman of the council’s parks I and recreation committee, Cr Clive Cotton, yesterday welcomed the .proposal, although he stressed that it was just ’a proposal for the committee to consider at this stage. | j( “It seems, as an indoor attraction, to be! ideal for part of the park. There should be no nbise nuis-

ance to local residents. But we are a long 1 way from (anything definite. We haven’t heard ! the directors put their proposal yet.” j f i Development of Queen Elizabeth II Park is a bone of contention [between the committee and two residents’ groups who! claim they have not been 0 consulted (about wide- > ranging plans for (the park, in spite of promises that they wbuld be. < Cr Cotton has made

I sure that Representatives of the North New Brighi ton Community Council . and the Queen Elizabeth II Park Environmental Action Committee have been invited to attend the presentation at Tuesday’s meeting. i ' ; , The vice-president of the community council, Mrs Anne Flanagan, (said ! she was wary of the {proposal but would reserve

judgment until she had heard what the developers had to say. “I’m pleased to have been invited to (hear the proposal — it’s about time.” ; Mrs Flanagan, said the officers’ report on the development proposals for the park suggested an at-0-traction similar to what * she understood The New Zealand Experience to be. “I’m not surprised this proposal has come forward,” she said.

The residents’ groups are uneasy about what they see as escalating commercialism at the park. The council has approved initiating a zone change for the park to take note of present and future attractions. It has also approved the involvement of j a private (developer in the completion of the leisure centre.