A house in Kinross St, Blenheim, will sit in the middle of a car park as the Marlborough District Council paves the way for 50 extra parks outside the Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000.
Work on turning the former site of the Radio Network building in Kinross St into a pay-and-display car park was approved last week by the council. It is estimated it will cost $100,000 to seal and light the area.
Winston Ball owns the house at 12 Kinross St, next to the demolished Radio Network site. He did not mind being surrounded by a car park on three sides of his property and said it was only noisy on Saturday nights.
He was not worried about the new parking area being developed.
"You can't stop progress."
In the 30 years he had lived at the property, he had seen his neighbours leave and their houses turned into car parks.
The council had tried to buy his home in the past, but he did not want to sell because he did not drive and it was convenient for him to live in town.
A council report says the long-term plan is to buy Mr Ball's property and the council has made several approaches to buy the land from him.
Three sites along Grove Rd and Sinclair St by the Railway Station are also being turned into free car parking for the new Blenheim i-Site, which is due to open at the end of July. The work is being done to replace car parks the i-Site was built on and to clean up one of the main entrances into Blenheim. Landscaping and sealing the area is expected to cost $200,000.
Mayor Alistair Sowman gave those using the site on the corner of Dillons Point Rd and Grove Rd as a free car sales site until the end of the weekend to move their cars before work begins this week.
A third car park will be created at the proposed site of the Farmers store in Wynen St, after the latest developer pulled out.
The Kinross St and Wynen St car parks will have 150 spaces between them.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
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