Tenders will soon be called for the upgrade of Baring Square East, which involves creating a new one-way road in front of Council’s new library and civic building and a major replant and renovation of the square itself.

Around $3 million has been set aside to breathe new life into the area, which Council hopes will be better used by residents and host more public events.

Plans for the area were approved by Councillors recently and Chief Executive Hamish Riach said some of the square’s original features, like the whale bones, would stay, while new paths and native plantings would be added.

“About two-thirds of the money we have put aside will go to creating the new road, with angle parking and a paved plaza entrance to the new civic building. The rest will be spent on rejuvenating the square, which will keep its oval paths and water feature.

“The natives, perennial and annual plantings are designed to give year-round colour and tie in with the work we have done in the CBD, and follow feedback from the public.”

Landscape architects are working through the final details of the plan and it should go out for tender in the next few weeks.

“Ideally the upgrade of Baring Square East will align with the completion of the new Ashburton Library and Civic Centre, Te Pātaka a kā Tuhituhi and Te Wharoa a Hine Paaka, which should be finished around the middle of next year.”

Councillors have also approved applying for a resource consent to relocate the South African Boer War memorial to Baring Square West as part of the upgrade.

Mr Riach said resource consent was needed for the relocation as the memorial had heritage status in the District Plan.

“That means the application will be handled by an independent planner and likely to be publicly notified, so members of the community will be able to have their say on the matter.”

The Boer War memorial was unveiled in 1903 to honour soldiers of the district that had died in the conflict. The red granite obelisk also commemorated the coronation of Edward VII.

Mr Riach said Council had already talked with the Ashburton RSA and the New Zealand Defence Force about how to ensure a sensitive relocation to Baring Square West, where the district’s other war memorials are located.

“They have no objections and we also plan to contact the descendants of the six soldiers whose names are on the memorial.”

The resource application will detail how the memorial could be relocated safely and how it would look at the new site.

It should be noted that the memorial has previously been relocated in 1978 within Baring Square from its original site.

The memorial was designed by Christchurch architect Samuel Hurst Seager following the Boer War and it was hoped that the obelisk would be continually improved over the years and would have an educational value.

The South African War was the first overseas conflict to involve New Zealand troops and was fought between the British Empire and the Boer South African Republic, who resented the British rule.

Several hundred New Zealand troops and their horses sailed to Cape Town in late 1899 to fight, where the ordeal was made much worse by extreme temperatures, disease and the Boers’ guerrilla war tactics.

Of the six soldiers commemorated on the Baring Square East memorial, one was killed in action, one was accidentally killed by a horse, another died of injuries from a rail accident, two died of enteric fever and the last was killed while trying to escape from a prisoner of war camp.

The six are also among the 79 soldiers commemorated on a Boer War panel at the back of the Queen Victoria Memorial in Christchurch.