SCHEME DELAYED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 62, 24 December 1935, Page 6

SCHEME DELAYED

HAMPSTEAD DRAINAGE WORKS. PLANS NOT FINALLY APPROVED. FLUSHING SYSTEM REQUIRED. ATTITUDE OF DEPARTMENT. Because the engineers of the Public Works Department insist on a system of flushing being installed with the Hampstead drainage scheme the work of putting in the drainage is.being held up, and it is likely that the Borough Council will have to call alternative tenders for the proposal. Decision was deferred till the next meeting of ' the Council on January 20. The Mayor (Mr W. H. Woods) reported to the Council last evening that it was only right that the people of Hampstead should know that the Council had been doing its best to have the work put in hand. When he was in Wellington recently, he interviewed the engineers of the Public Works Department and he said that while they did not want to place any obstacles in the'way they felt that in view of the experience of other towns and the statements of engineers in Wellington and Christchurch, they could not take the risk of passing the plans unless there was some system of flushing provided for the scheme. The Mayor said lie had pointed out that the cost was already as heavy as the district could bear, and the engineers had advised that the Council should call tenders for the two types of work, with flushing and without flushing, and then, if the price was beyond the point fixed, the position could be reviewed. The Mayor added that he had replied that the Council would) not be prepared to call tenders if the work could not be gone on with. That was as far as he had been able to get with the engineers. The engineers, the Mayor continued, certainly had obtained data on which they were basing their requisitions. Even in Wellington the engineers would not sanction a drop of less than one in 200 feet without a flushing system being included. In any event nothing could be done till after the holidays, and it would be best to hold the question over till January 20, when more information might be available. In reply to Mr J. Shaw, the Mayor said that if the tenders exceeded the amount the Council was permitted to raise, it would have to receive some sanction from the ratepayers, to whom an undertaking had been given: that the price set would not be exceeded. On the motion of Messrs J. Thompson and W. H. Robinson, it was agreed to delay decision to call tenders till the next meeting.