The St Albans Community Website

It is looking like the Christchurch City Council might try to sell some city assets after all to reduce rates or to help pay for things like the Te Kaha sports stadium. However, some Christchurch citizens made their objections known at a recent meeting. The 16 page December/January edition, the last for 2023, also features a couple of Christmas pages, a followup story about Nurse Duncan who was midwife and mother to Ina, who we featured earlier in the year and more. We also celebrate 30 years of St Albans News with a brief update of the past five years and recap the 2018 story of the St Albans Neighbourhood News which first appeared in letterboxes in December 1993.

It’s a slim edition and mostly a preliminary report about the recent general election. National won the party vote in the Christchurch Central electorate while Duncan Webb retained the electorate seat on the night. Things might change when the special votes are counted and included in the total. The new Government is likely to be a combination of ACT and National and possibly one other party. And in Te Tai Tonga, Te Pati Maori candidate Tukata Ferris unseated Labour’s Rino Tirakatene. A few smaller pieces fill a couple of remaining pages. Click on the image to the right to download the November edition of St Albans News.

St Albans School reunion and election candidates feature in the October edition of St Albans News.The primary school is 150 years old, having started in 1873, and celebrated with photos, speeches, cake cutting, singing and sack racing. Many different generations of school children have passed through its doors. With the general elections on October 14 we take provide a brief view of 11 candidates standing for Christchurch Central and Te Tai Tonga.

St Albans says farewell to local identity (rugby legend and tomato grower) Tane Norton who died in early August, with a focus on tomatoes that provided his family with a good living before they took over operations at Bailies and the Cranford Ale House. There is also a rough guide to political party views and policies in the centre pages given that there is an election in mid-October. It is not intended as a comprehensive view but more of a starter kit on where to find out more about the party policies behind the rhetoric.

St Albans Primary School is celebrating 150 years in September and St Albans News has dedicated a 4 page spread to the jubilee. We have a look at the Shirley Community Centre, one of the first to be set up in Christchurch in 1977 but looking like the last badly damaged centre to be replaced, if it is. Council has been consulting the community on the topic for three years in a search for alternatives. And a roadshow travelling the country pushing the line that co-governance is a plot by Maori elites faces protest action in Caledonian Rd. All this and more in the August edition of St Albans News. Click on the image to the tight to download and read.

Lots of stories in St Albans News in July, including one about the urban forest (we are losing trees and not replacing them fast enough in the city) and the possibility that the Edgeware Pool when built could become a refuge in a hotter climate. Ada Wells, the local teacher who became the city’s first woman councillor and helped install public playgrounds also features in a piece that looks back 150 years. StAN is being delivered to letterboxes on July 6.

Parking in Edgeware Village could cost you if you don’t know how to beat the time limits (talk to the owner) and we take a first look at some expensive new homes going up on the Orion block. June’s St Albans News is packed with long stories and short bites, from litter on a street corner to the prospect of transport corridors lined with six storey houses. Find out how you can trap rats in your backyard and contribute toward New Zealand becoming pest-free by 2050 We even have space to bring back the letters’page.

St Albans News talks to a 95 year old who has spent most of her life in St Albans and there’s a piece about the author of a book called “Fear” who is concerned about links between local operators and international activists behind the protest in Parliament in March 2022. No one solution will solve the city’s flooding problems but things like installing swales and storage tanks might make a difference as the city intensifies housing. Click on the image to download and read the May issue.

It has been suggested by some St Albans residents that a public barbecue should be placed in St Albans Park but apparently it needs public support as well as intensive enough use of the park to justify it. The city council has installed and maintains a number of public barbecues, mostly in places like Hagley Park and around the city edges. St Albans Park is well used for sports activities and an area near the children’s playground popular with picnickers has been suggested for placement. The April edition of St Albans News is also a slim one due to lower ad revenue but it’s packed inside with plenty of small stories. Click on the image to download and read.

The March edition of St Albans News may be slimmer than usual but it’s packed inside with plenty of small stories. The main feature has been given over to the tale of how the St Albans Residents Association (SARA) was reborn to fight the government’s first attempt at running a motorway through St Albans. It involved a former mayor and a newly-minted dame. The Kohinga Mara pantry has been completed and is now on the St Albans Community Centre forecourt in Colombo St where passersby can find fresh fruit and vegetables from the centre’s garden or donated from other St Albans gardens. SARA is beginning a journey to make the centre zero waste by partnering with Para Kore.