Ashburton’s library and civic centre making progress, on the inside, while Selwyn's new centre sparks controversy

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Jonathan Leask:

There has been plenty of progress, just not visible progress.

Construction of the $56.75 million Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, is tracking along, Ashburton District Council chief executive Hamish Riach said.

“The tarpaulins and wrapping on the outside of the building is to enable work on the inside to proceed with relative protection from the weather prior to the facade of the building being attached,” Riach said.

“While this enables work to proceed, it does mean it is very hard to see building activity behind the tarpaulins.

“Once the facade is attached in the next few weeks and months, the building will look dramatically different.”

The project is still on track to be finished about mid-2023 while the budget remains under significant pressure because of “these difficult Covid times and skyrocketing construction prices".

“We are very grateful for the $20m grant given by the Government to the project as part of its Covid stimulus package.”

Ashburton’s new building will display the names gifted from Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua, Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka, alongside the words Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Riach said.

Selwyn’s Te Ara Ātea, the multi-use community facility and library that opened in Rolleston in December last year, has been a topic of debate recently.

Rolleston Residents Association members want the Selwyn District Council to put the word “library” under the name of Te Ara Ātea on its signage because they feel people don’t know what the building is – despite it attracting over 100,000 visitors.

Before the building opening the Association had campaigned to have the words community centre removed from the project, as the Rolleston Community Centre, which had housed the old library, was being retained.

The Selwyn council decided to use the name Te Ara Ātea, which means the unobstructed trail to the world and beyond, rather than a by-line describing the building’s various functions.

Arowhenua gifted the names for the new Ashburton library and civic building, with the library known as Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi and the civic centre as Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka. Te Pātaka o kā Tuhituhi means the storehouse of written publications, while Te Waharoa a Hine Paaka derives from an ancient matai tree that once stood at Alford Forest. Known as Hine Paaka, the tree was a significant landmark to Māori travelling through the district.

*Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air