SALE OF PARK LAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22935, 4 July 1944, Page 6

SALE OF PARK LAND

Nurses’ Home Proposal Previous Council Decision Confirmed Bv six votes to five, the Timaru Borough Council last night defeated a proposal by Crs. 1. Chittock and 11. W. Lomas to rescind the resolution of the previous Council agreeing to the sale of a portion of Timaru Park to the South Canterbury Hospital Board for extensions to the Nurses’ Home. Tire vote was taken after a deputation from the Hospital Board, comnrisintr Messrs H. J. Clark, H. G. Naylor (secretary) and P. W. Rule (architect) had been heard. . Mr Clark said that the chief objections to the proposal seemed to coine from the heads of various sports bodies but they were making a mountain out of a molehill. The Board required something less than an acre from an area of 50 acres. Sports in the real sense of the word did not object to the transfer of a strip of land for the building of a nurses' home. If a vote were taken, he felt confident that the proposal to sell the land would be carried by a big majority. The Building Committee and the Board itself had studied the matter from all angles and had finally decided on the Park site. . Mr Naylor emphasised that for many years the Board had endeavoured to develop the hospital along the most modern lines of hospital construction and every unit that had been built had been part of a preconceived plan. The ultimate aim was to have a main corridor right through the whole of the buildings and linking up with the nurses’ home. The Board regarded the home as an integral part of the hospital and it should not be separated. It was essential to keep the whole thing on one area, which would make for economy in working and also the convenience and comfort of the nursing staff. They aimed to arrange the buildings so that the nurses would be under cover which would not be possible if the nurses’ home were erected elsewhere. Recently the Council had refused an application to make the “Timaru Post” building available for an R.S.A. clubroom, because the Council envisaged that it ■would be required in the future for the extension of the municipal buildings. Tire principle in regard to the hospital extensions was exactly the same. The Board had been commended on the building scheme and on the buildings already erected by responsible authorities, and the Board was offering the Council an opportunity to co-operate in the development of one of the finest institutions in New Zealand and one of which Timaru could be justly proud. Mr Rule, by means of several large plans, gave details of the Board’s building scheme with information regarding developments in the years to come.

Cr. R. Green remarked that he did not think that the sports bodies objected to the proposal to surrender part of the park land. Voices: Yes. the Council of Sport did. Cr. C. E. Thomson claimed that the 3-acre section owned by the Board in Edward Street would make a wonderful site for the nurses’ home. If the Board required some of the park land for a surgical block or administration blocks he would have had no objection. He asked the reason why the Edward Street land was not to be used for the nurses’ home. Cost Per Room Mr Naylor replied that to build a home containing 150 beds on that site would require a £200,000 loan over a period of 20 years, and for that reason the Board was opposed to the idea. To provide an extension containing 53 beds on the park site would cost £30,000, and to give the same accommodation in a building in Edward Street would cost at least £6OOO or £7OOO because of the additional foundations and the duplication of the dining room and sitting room. A separate building would be more costly to run as additional staffing, kitchen accommodation, cooking utilities and so on would have to be provided. Admittedly it would be no hardship to the nurses to walk half a mile or even a mile to and from their work, but it would be undesirable to expect them to do so at all hours of the night. In other centres where the nurses’ homes were not adjacent to the hospitals strong protests had been made by parents of young girls having to walk some distance at night to and from their work. Cr. J. M. Jenkins: Has the Board considered all the alternative proposals which have been made? Mr Naylor: Yes, and some of them were fantastic in the extreme. Cr. Jenkins: That is all I desire to know. I do not require your comment on the subject. Is the Board convinced that this is the only sound, economic and efficient scheme? Mr Naylor: The Director of the Hospitals Division of the Department of Health and several of his senior officers, who have inspected the alternative sites, expressed themselves most emphatically that the site proposed was the only sound, practical solution to the Board's plan.

Cr. H. W. Lomas: Has the Board estimated the cost of building a thirdstorey to the present nurses’ home? Mr Naylor: Portion of it comprises three storeys already. If a fourth were added it would be possible to provide only 13 rooms which would cost £7OO per room. In the Queen Street deviation scheme the cost would be £lO3O per room for 60 bedrooms. The present proposal would provide 53 bedrooms at £720 per room. Crs. Chittock and Lomas then moved a resolution proposing that the decision of the previous Council be rescinded. Cr. Chitock contended that it was an economic waste for the Board to buy other land, when it already held the Edward Street block. His idea was that the present nurses’ home should be converted into a maternity hospital. Tire present home had been built between 1935 and 1940 and he contended that the Board had possessed insufficient vision in not then providing for the demand for increased accommodation for the nurses which had now arisen. Cr. Lomas said that objections to the proposal to take portion of the Park had been lodged by the South. North and West End Householders and Ratepayers’ Association, the Caroline Bay Association, the Council of Sport, representing 22 affiliated bodies and the National Council of Women representing 17 organisations, a total of 42, which he thought represented a considerable number of citizens. The Hospital Board policy should be to build on its own land first.

After further discussion the motion was lost, the voting being as follows: For: Crs. Chittock, Lomas. E. J. Ellis Green and W. L. Richards; against:' The Mayor and Crs. R. S. Wheeler, W H. Hall. Thomson, Jenkins and A. S. Kinsman.