Editorial By Coen Lammers

The sale of Ashburton’s Mackenzie Centre has been a public relations disaster. The physically and intellectually disabled adults of the Ashburton community group have been left high and dry after owner CCS Disability Action sold the premises from underneath them.
The sale and eviction are traumatic enough for the community group and their families, but the manner in which the CCS conducted the communication and consultation appears to have been poor to say the least.
The disabled people are just one of several groups using the centre and they are all now literally left in the cold.
Looking at the cold hard facts, CCS has made a correct business decision, but that will not make it any easier for the Mackenzie Centre users to swallow.
CCS says that it only uses one room in the centre as its operations have changed and having their finances tied up in the building made no sense as they need the cash to support their local services.
The irony is that many parents using the community group are members of the CCS. Gabrielle Templeton, whose daughter was featured on yesterday’s front page of the Guardian, is even a life member of the organisation, so her family must have very mixed feelings.
Even with the best intentions and financial arguments, the extremely brief, cold, business-like letter that arrived out of the blue must have been a kick in the guts when the community group returned after their Christmas break.
Much of the anger and shock could have been avoided if CCS had followed some basic rules of communication and common manners, especially to the people their organisation is supposed to support.
CCS bought the building in the 1980s, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Mackenzie Charitable Foundation.
The deal was facilitated by Don Church, who was a trustee of the foundation and the chairman of CCS in Ashburton.
The Ashburton Community Group and other users have always been under the impression that the foundation had gifted the building to the CCS under the condition that it could not be sold.
They thought they had a home for life but were obviously mistaken.
The community group’s pain is the Cancer Society’s gain, as they have been able to purchase the building with some assistance from Advance Ashburton.
The Cancer Society needs bigger premises and cannot be blamed for the poor communication by the building owners.
The Mackenzie Foundation is now looking for a new home for the displaced Ashburton community group, who need all the help they can get.