HEATHCOTE WATER SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21656, 14 December 1935, Page 16

HEATHCOTE WATER SUPPLY

NEW SCHEME NOT TO BE UNDERTAKEN ENGINEER’S REPORT TO COUNCIL A recommendation that the Heathcote County Council should not proceed with any scheme for establishing a separate water supply for the Heathcote Valley was made to the council in a report presented to it by Mr C. Dawe last evening. Mr Dawe, a civil engineer, who had been asked by the council to investigate the possibility of having a separate supply for the valley, said he was convinced that sufficient good water was not available. In a plan he submitted with his report he showed that 32 wells had been sunk in the district. Several of these were dry and of the remainder the water in some was not usable. “Twelve bores have been sunk within a radius of 17 chains from the proposed source of supply,” the report said. “Two of these wells are dry and others are giving a scanty supply. It is quite obvious that if good water had been plentiful, the Lyttelton Borough Council would not have gone further afield to a radius of 60 chains and sunk approximately 20 additional wells. There are about 180 houses in the district to be supplied and to pump this from local available sources could only result in failure.”

“The report completely vindicates the council for not being stampeded into a scheme which has every indication of being a white elephant,” commented Mr F. W. Freeman, “The scheme would have been a duplication of existing facilities and a waste of public money.” The council agreed to send a copy of the report and plan to the Heathcote Burgesses’ Association and to accept an offer from the Lyttelton Borough Council to supply water at the reduced rate of Is 2d per 1000 gallons for five years. The rate was previously Is sd.