The Sports Hall Site and the Sportsdrome

"Just what is this council of ours going to get rid of next?" writes "Sell Out". "Not that very long ago we heard that Nelson's acreage of playing fields is way behind many other centres and that the council would have to find some more playing space from somewhere. But then the contradiction. We learn of the proposed sportsdrome which is to be sited on the No 2 field at Trafalgar Park. How silly can you get? Surely there is plenty of council land in Nelson without having to take a playing field out of circulation to use as a building site? But if that wasn't enough, we now learn that the council is prepared to sign away the Sports Hall and the section on which it stands, together with part of Shakespeare Walk, to an Australian company which wants to build luxury motels here. Good luck to the company! We re pleased to have them here. But not on the sports hall site, and for a miserable £10,700. Could you get these questions answered for me? Just how much land is involved in this deal? What is the present market valuation of it? Will the building of motels there prevent access to the buildings at the back of Trafalgar Park? And another thing, what about all this offstreet parking we've been hearing about. Surely the land involved here, if it's valued at only £10,700, would have been better used for parking than some of the council's previous proposals involving property in the heart of Nelson at a much greater value than £10,700. I feel that this is just one more civic asset that's being given away. Maybe we do want high class motels and a high class conference hall and a high class hotel. But why should citizens of Nelson have to hand over extremely valuable land in the centre of the city to a company whose only purpose in coming here is to make a profit? I don't begrudge them the profit. I do the land. I think it could be put to better civic use - even as the site for the sportsdrome."

We referred your questions to the Town Clerk, Mr W.E. McCullough, who gave us the following answers:

The land involved is 3 roods 19.1 perches and half of this is street. The other half is occupied by the sports hall. The figure of £10,700 was based on the valuation the council received. No, the buildings would not prevent access to the back of Trafalgar Park. Provision would be made for a 10ft access strip as a walkway and vehicle access "will come in a different way".

Mr McCullough pointed out the land could only be sold by closing the street and any street closure is open to objection by the public. Similarly, the sale would also be subject to a departure from the Town Planning Act, and once again, the public would have the right to object.

Since there has been no complete answer to the second of your questions, we made some inquiries and learned that a slightly larger area of land in that locality had a Government valuation of £16,000 and a market value of nearly double this figure.