Dance teacher overwhelmed by support in battle for hall

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Jonathans Leask:

Dancers stood tall, and in big numbers, in their battle to save Ashburton's Balmoral Hall.

Dance teacher Charmaine Quaid put out the call for past and present students of her Dance Worx studio to assemble last Friday (April 5) in a show of support for retaining the Balmoral Hall.

She was blown away by the response with about 300 people turning up to show their support.

“It was overwhelming,” Quaid said.

“It was quite emotional to see some people from way back, and people coming from out of town and long distances especially to support us.”

Quaid has run her dance school from the hall for almost 50 years but it is now in limbo.

The hall requires an estimated $1.3m of repairs to be brought up to standard.

In its draft long-term plan, the Ashburton District Council is proposing to sell the hall and land as the costs to maintain and operate both sites are expensive, and the income received doesn’t currently cover the costs.

Quaid wants the hall retained but is conscious of not overspending on it.
“We don’t need a million, we just need the maintenance,” she said.

If ratepayers were to stump up and fund the repairs, they would also have to continue topping up the hall to subsidise the users – who may also face higher fees to use the building.

The Dance Worx gathering was used to collect statements of support for a long-term plan submission to retain the hall.

“We had quite a few lend their support to our submission and plenty say that they would also be doing their own.

“If you don’t have your say you can’t complain.”

As part of its consultation engagement the council is hosting a BBQ at Baring Square East on Saturday (April 13) from 10am to 2pm, and has decided to open the Balmoral Hall to the public.

The council’s democracy and engagement group manager, Toni Durham, said on the back of requests from the community to look inside Balmoral Hall, it made sense to align it with the event at Baring Square.

“It's primarily a chance for those who are not familiar with Balmoral Hall to be able to get a better idea of what the building looks like from inside,” Durham said.

In a similar event last weekend, an estimated 150 people turned up at the Tinwald Domain on Saturday to get a close-up look at the state of the Tinwald Pool and discuss its future, with the council proposing to spend $3m on a new outdoor pool at EA Networks Centre.

Mayor Neil Brown was pleased with the turnout to the event to discuss the options.

“The Tinwald Pool needs major repairs and some definitely want it to stay, but others see that money better spent elsewhere.”

Submissions on the long-term plan close on April 28.