Selwyn_Times: September 21, 2022

Selwyn Times Wednesday September 21 2022
28
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Workotel site will feature 110 new homes
• By Tina Grumball
SOCIAL HOUSING developer
Kāinga Ora – Homes and
Communities is planning to
redevelop the old Workotel site
in Sockburn to meet the urgent
need for housing.
The site of 15-21 Main South
Rd has had a long history of accommodation.
First the site of the Riccarton
Holiday Park, it was bought for
$6.7 million by Tee International,
of Singapore, who joined forces
with local builders, Artmatic
Holdings, to develop the Riccarton
Workotel.
The site housed hundreds of
construction workers brought
into Christchurch to rebuild after
the quakes, and some displaced
locals.
Kāinga Ora is now looking to
re-purpose it again.
Kāinga Ora regional director
Canterbury Liz Krause said they
first engaged with neighbours
and local stakeholders late last
year to let them know they had
purchased the site, as well as their
“intentions to build warm, dry
homes there for people in need”.
Letters have been dropped
to 250 homes and businesses
near the site, an email sent to
stakeholders and information
sessions held with the
community.
Krause noted the first of two
sessions was “well attended”,
mostly by neighbours of the site,
CONCEPT: The Workotel site (below right) housed construction workers after the quakes.
Its redevelopment will house families in need of a warm and safe place to live.
people living nearby and support
agencies.
“The vast majority of feedback
so far has been overwhelmingly
positive, with people understanding
the boost this will give to the
urgent need for public housing in
Christchurch,” Krause said.
“One site neighbour told us
she thought it was lovely that so
many people and families will
have nice new homes.”
The project team confirmed
the resource consent application
is to be submitted by the end of
September.
Krause said they would continue
to engage with the local
community throughout the planning
and construction of the new
homes.
The site will feature 110 new
homes; a mix of three, four and
five-story apartments, townhouses,
terraced housing, duplexed
housing and standalone houses.
Kāinga Ora is also planning
to include a new tree-lined
public street that will connect
Main South Rd with Ballantyne
Ave and provide access to
a communal outdoor space
for residents and the wider
community.
Community and residential
facilities will be featured, such as
a community room overlooking
the outdoor open spaces from the
ground floor of the central apartment
building.
It is expected to be completed
in November 2025.
Restoration complete on Akaroa’s whaling pots
SOME important relics of
Akaroa’s whaling days are being
returned to a prime spot on the
township’s waterfront.
Three whaling try pots that
date back to the early 1800s
are about to be reinstated on
Beach Rd after being carefully
restored.
The pots have been a
distinctive feature of Akaroa’s
waterfront for decades and
countless children have
clambered in and out of them
over the years.
However, years of exposure to
the corrosive sea environment
left them rusted and pitted.
In 2020, contractors working
for the city council carefully
prised the pots off their brickwork
plinth and removed them
so they could be restored.
The restoration work to protect
the pots and ensure their longevity
is now finished and the pots
are ready to be reinstated on
Beach Rd, between Church St
and Rue Jolie.
The pots will be reinstated
early this month, weather
permitting.
Try pots were originally used
by sailors sitting on ship decks,
or in whaling stations dotted
on the foreshore around New
Zealand from the 1830s, to boil
down whale blubber for use in
lamps and soap.
The pots were usually organised
in a “nest’’, with a fire lit
underneath.
The shore-whaling era on
Banks Peninsula ended about
1850.
All three of the pots in Akaroa
came from local whaling
stations.
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