Kaiapoi Residents Protest At Proposed Blacksmith’s Shop

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28157, 21 December 1956, Page 7

Kaiapoi Residents Protest At Proposed Blacksmith’s Shop

A petition from 12 residents in Kaiapoi, protesting at the proposed establishment of a blacksmith’s shop on the Main North road, a residential area, was received at a meeting of the Kaiapoi Borough Council last evening. The council resolved to ask the owner. Mr I. R. Bruce, for further information and fuller plans, and that the chairmen of the council's townplanning and by-laws committees should confer with Mr Eruce and then discuss the matter with their committees before it was brought before the full council again for further consideration.

The petition said that the noise from the proposed works would create a nuisance in the area, and that the welding plant which would be operated at night would interfere. with wireless sets.

“Every time someone wants to start any sort of industrial work in the town there is bound to be some sort of complaint,” said Cr. C. T. Williams “Provided there is no actual nuisance we shouldn’t interfere unduly with any industry. After all, industry keeps a town in existence.”

The Town and Country Planning Act provided that action could be taken only where there was a definite

nuisance, said the Mayor (Mr N. E. Kirk).

The fumes from a blacksmith’s shop usually ruined roofs, and he* had not seen one yet that had not become a mass of junk, said Cr. L. P. Peachey Such an industry should be put in a proper industrial area, said Cr. L. V T. McEwan.

Cr. H. L. Oram, the chairman of the building committee, said the plan submitted was incomplete and he was sure the council’s building inspector would not approve it. A permit should be withheld until a fuller plan was submitted.

He would not like to see the matter defeated purely on a point of town planning, nor see a permit given on the plan as it was, said Mr Kirk. He suggested that the charimen of the town planning committee and the by-laws committee should inspect Mr Bruce’s present shop and determine the amount of noise.