Page 160 - Bulletin 7 2003

157

The Front Verandah

The building of the front verandah with a concrete floor and a corrugated iron
lean-to led to correspondence that lasted from 1935 until the Police Station’s

closure in 1950. (Figs. 4.6 & 4.7). Initially the Kalk Bay Ratepayers Association

wrote to the City Council in July 1935 requesting them to ask the P. W. D. to
remove the verandah in order that pavement access could be extended along the

full frontage of the police station. Pedestrians were forced into the street when
walking in front of the police station and this was dangerous. Nothing resulted

from this until the Council wrote to the Provincial Administration‘s Department
of Lands, in September 1935, saying that they needed the ground for the making

of a footway as part of their road-widening scheme. Various letters followed

thereafter regarding the cost of altering the police station once this verandah was
removed and the footway built. These costs included a new verandah at the north

end, an alteration to windows and doors, the building of a retaining wall at the

south end, and the providing of a new entrance to the mortuary. Also, there
would be various electrical costs. The total cost estimate was £270. Council

refused to consider any costs as their requirement was for public purposes and, in
any event, it was unalienated Crown Land. The argument continued and the

Surveyor-General, in October 1935, ruled in favour of the Council stating that the
Police Reserve on the strip applied for must be cancelled.

Nothing happened, and by November 1937 the Council were exasperated and
offered to pay the £270. The reply was equally frustrating as the Secretary of

Public Works advised, however, that it was proposed to make provision on the
1938/39 Major Works Estimates for the erection of a new police station behind

the existing station, and it would be better for Council to wait until the existing
building was demolished. This would save the Council and the Government the

extra cost of alterations.

The proposed new police station never materialized and each year it was

postponed to a later date. In 1940 the Secretary of Public Works advised: