Editorial: Green lungs

OPINION: When the Christchurch settlers set aside a large area of swamp and tussock for a civic park they were responding to an ancient tradition and a new idea.

The common lands of England had once sustained ordinary people by providing them access to grazing and grain to such an extent that the slow enclosure of that land into private ownership became a source of serious civil unrest.

The Victorians, in their enthusiasm for the creation of parks open to all, did not redress the grievances of the rural poor but did provide common domain for the urban masses.

Christchurch was a major beneficiary of that enthusiasm. Hagley Park, the four avenues and the squares were created because the founding fathers were intent on giving their colony's capital ample space for its citizens' rest and recreation.

In the early years the scheme must have appeared unbalanced, taking up as much if not more space than the huddle of houses. Even today the impression is that Christchurch has more than enough green spaces to sustain its comparatively modest population.

But such a calculation cannot be convincingly made, especially in a nation increasingly protective of its common land and increasingly keen on outdoor recreation. Moreover, Christchurch's population is expected to grow by 84,000 over the next three decades, which will substantially increase the need for parks and reserves.

The Christchurch City Council's recommitment to creating more parks and improving its existing ones is therefore welcome.

Its latest plan is for the creation of small parks on sites such as that of the old Women's Hospital and Turners and Growers and further out into neighbourhoods. As well, the four avenues and Cranmer and Latimer squares will be spruced up and more parkland furniture – fountains, statues, memorials, art works – installed. Access to the Avon riverbed will be improved.

Few citizens will argue with any of this. It is splendid in outline, maintaining and extending Christchurch's tradition as the Garden City. But the detail and execution might prove contentious.

Dissension about the handling of the city's parks and reserves is also a tradition, and often it has been justified. Much of the development of open spaces has not been to the liking of citizens, as designers pursue their enthusiasms to excess.

The overall impact of their work over the last couple of decades has been to change the once formal presentation of the inner city into something much less formal, with straight lines of trees being messed into huddled groupings and display of single varieties being abandoned for incongruous mixtures.

One of the worst examples of this is Linwood Ave, once glorying in a formal double line of plane trees and now a roadway shamed by a scrubby mixture of haphazard plantings.

The desecration of the city's founding vision, such as has happened on Linwood and Moorhouse avenues, should not be tolerated. Informality of design and the mixture of natives and exotics have their place, but not when they uproot the traditional landscape of the city.

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