By Kyle Knowles, reporting for the Christchurch Mail
The Ascot/Freeville Residents Group is unhappy the Travis Medical Centre has been granted a lease to develop a car park on QEII land.
Group co-ordinator Nigel Dixon did not believe the council should be leasing QEII land for car parking.
“We spent many years with QEII management making the area beautiful with green spaces and trees and I hope that it is reutilised as a sports facility or even just fields in future.”
The Burwood-Pegasus Community Board granted the medical practice a five-year lease earlier this month [3 June] for use of land that is part of the former QEII site.
Burwood-Pegasus Community Board Chairperson Andrea Cummings said the lease would be a one-off, and the decision had not been straightforward.
“There was a very good debate around the table about the issue and it was not something we would do usually but the board recognised the special circumstances of the situation.”
Practice manager Linda Adams said the centre’s current car park was at capacity and no longer met its needs.
The practice has gained about a 1000 new patients since the earthquakes as other doctors in the area left or practices had closed.
Adams said street parking was also tight because other businesses in the area were expanding.
The car park will be funded entirely by the medical centre, which is now applying for resource consent from the Christchurch City Council.
Adams hoped that would be a quick process.
