ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21198, 23 June 1934, Page 9

ELECTRICITY SUPPLY

♦ CITY RATES WANTED IN HEATHCOTE DEPUTATION TO COUNTY COUNCIL A deputation consisting of about 20 ratepayers in the Mount Pleasant, Avon, and Bromley ridings of the Heathcote County waited on the Heathcote County Council last night, and presented petitions asking the council to secure for them supply of electricity from the Christchurch City Council at the rates charged to city consumers. There were 299 signatures on the petition, from the Avon and Bromley ridings, and 94 on the petition from the Mount Pleasant riding. Messrs B. Riley and G. K. McCall spoke on behalf of the deputation. References were made to one riding, Hillsborough, already receiving supply from the city, and to the cheaper rates at which the ratepayers in the petitioning ridings would be able to get supply from the city. Negotiations With the City The chairman (Cr. C. Flavell), replying to the deputation, said that it was certain that the city, like other big consumers, could get better terms for bulk supply than the county. He explained that Hillsborough riding was able to obtain supply from the city because the city had run its lines into the riding to supply the quarries. As far as the Avon and Bromley ridings were concerned, the council haQ been in treaty with the City Council about taking over supply to the two ridings at city rates. They had got things down to the point that, provided the city could get permission from the Government, the city would supply Avon and Bromley at city rates, and also would supply street lighting at city rates. He had expected that a letter from the City Council, offering to take over Avon and Bromley, would have been received for consideration at that night's meeting. The request from Mount Pleasant was comparatively new and he could not say whether the City Council would consent to give supply on the same terms as those offered to Avon and Bromley. The council desired an understanding with the city that the rates to the three ridings would be always the same as those charged by the city; in other words, that the three ridings be part and parcel, electrically, of the city. Cr. A. G. Williams said that as the representative of the Mount Pleasant riding, he felt that they could not afford to leave that riding out of any arrangement arrived at with the city. After the deputation had withdrawn, the council discussed the matter in committee. On resuming, the chairman reported that it had been resolved to write to the Municipal Electricity Department and ask on what terms the department would take over electricity supply to the Avon, Bromley, and Mount Pleasant ridings. He said that representations on the subject of the city providing supply to Avon and Bromley were made by the county council to the Municipal Electricity Department last September.