LAKE SUMNER ACCESS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 3

LAKE SUMNER ACCESS

Suggested Request For Subsidy

APPROACH TO COUNTY COUNCIL

The Waipara County Council has been asked to receive a deputation from the Canterbury Progress League and the interim committee of the Hurunui Lakes Development Committee at its next meeting on February 7.

The president of the league (Mr H. E. Radley) said that the deputation would ask the county to apply for a grant from the National Roads Board, which was understood to have been making grants for back-country roads. Both the league and the interim committee were convinced that a good ‘‘country road” was all that was required, and that a road to Ministry of Works standard was not only premature but too expensive for the present requirements, Mr Radley said.

“It is hoped,” he said, ‘‘that the county will receive the deputation, and that, as a result, the county and the Government departments concerned will complete reading arrangements early in the New Year so that a road right through to Lake Sumner will permit applicants for sections to be in possession before next summer. ‘‘An important point is that Lake Sumner has caught the public's imagination,” said Mr Radley, ‘‘and it is certain that heavy traffic will occur on the access road this summer. This is quite irrespective of whether the area is opened up for settlement or not. There will be a big influx of campers and day trippers, which makes it vital that more dangerous portions of the access road should receive immediate attention. This is a serious responsibility for the controlling body.”

The interim committee met this week to receive the report of the deputation which waited on the Act-ing-Minister of Lands (Mr J. K. McAlpine) and the chairman of the National Roads Board (Mr W. S. Goosman) in Wellington recently. Mr McAlpihe said that the county council could be reasonably sure of a subsidy from the roads board and assured the deputation that a subdivision would be made when the access problem had been solved.