A BEAUTIFUL STREET FOR GONVILLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18821, 11 July 1923, Page 9

A BEAUTIFUL STREET FOR GONVILLE

MODERN METHODS TO BE ADOPTED. Something different in' street construction is being considered by the Gonville Town Board. A new street is to be laid out, leading from Puriri to Rimu Streets, and Mr Hope Gibbons has made suggestions that | may lead to a very attractive thoroughfare being formed. His idea is to fiorm a roadway 22 feet wide, i and on each side to make a footpath six feet wide. That will I leave another 16 feet on each side I of the road between the footpaths and residential properties. This strip of land, he suggests, should be laid out in grass, planted with suitable trees, and with seats here and there. Thus a very attractive and tidy avenue would be made. It could easily be maintained by the local body, and would greatly enhance the appearance not only of the road, but of the homes as well. It is the method in practice in American cities and also in Christchurch. It is particularly suitable i for streets where the traffic is I light. The upkeep is low in cost, and it prevents the streets from de- : generating into an overgrown wild- I erness of rough lank grass such as disfigure so many thoroughfares in this district. Mr Gibbons, who is dedicating the road, is prepared to plant ornamental trees, and. through his surveyors, Messrs Annabell and Marchant, to lay out the street to the requirements of the Gonville Town Board. It is not desired, nor Is it expected, that the proposed formation would cost less money, but. is intended to make a street that will be more modern and more beautiful in all its aspects.

An alternative scheme is to allow residents to fence up to the footpath, during the pleasure of the local body. In this case the road and footways would always be kept neat and orderly, and there would be no waste part in the thoroughfare that would look more like a Jungle than anything else. Boyd Avenue, the street under discussion by the Wanganui Borough Council, and proposed to be made through the old Zoo property, is intended to be formed in similar manner.

The Gonville Town Board has not made its decision upon the matter, but is rather inclined to favour the idei, and recognises that it contains much to recommend it as a means of forming roads that will be not only efficient in every respect, but will also enhance the desirability of the locality as a place of residence.