STATE’S POLICY ON BY-LAWS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28513, 17 February 1958, Page 3

STATE’S POLICY ON BY-LAWS

Local Bodies Critical

The policy of the Government of allowing its departments and education boards to erect buildings that did not comply with local body by-laws or town-planning schemes was criticised at a meeting of the executive of the South Island Local Bodies’ Association in Christchurch.

The Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Anderton) will be informed of the association’s views. The matter was taken*up by the association with the previous Minister (Mr S. W. Smith) after a complaint by the Winton Borough Council that it had difficulty in connecting Railway Department houses to water and sewerage systems because certain by-laws had not been met.

It was not a new matter. It had been raised with successive Governments over a long period, said Mr Smith in reply to the association’s representations. The Government had made it quite clear that it was not prepared, in principle, to the Crown abandoning by legislation its prerogatives of non-compliance with local body by-laws or town-planning schemes. It had been laid down as a matter of Government policy that Government departments should adhere as far as practicable to building by-laws and town-plan-ning schemes. The complaint made by the Winton Borough Council had been referred to the appropriate authority, the Minister said. “We should take this matter further,” said Mr R. Evans, of Waimea, after the letter had been read. “The local bodies, through their association, go to a great deal of trouble to build up a code of by-laws. What right have some bureaucrats in a Government department to ride roughshod over them? The Crown should operate under the sa/ne conditions as the individual.”