Roads Board Subsidy For Master Transportation Plan

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30073, 6 March 1963, Page 11

Roads Board Subsidy For Master Transportation Plan

The National Roads Board has advised the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority that it will contribute 30 per cent, of the cost of the Christchurch master transportation scheme up to the stage of geometries.

“This will give us a good fund to carry on our work through the planning stage, and it means we can now go ahead and advertise for the required staff,” said the chairman (Mr E. J. Bradshaw) at a meeting of the authority yesterday.

In it* letter to the authority, the National Roads Board said it considered that work involved beyond the preliminary design stage should be the responsibility of the engineering authority undertaking the construction work, and for which the board allowed a percentage on cost for subsidy purposes. “Any extension of the master transportation plan survey* beyond the outline survey stage will therefore not be eligible for subsidy,” said the letter. “The board's approval to subsidise your survey is based on the actual cost so far involved by your authority (£57,800) plus an estimated £50,000 to complete the work to the abovementioned stage. “As /ar as future state highway proposals are concerned. the board will expect the Ministry of Works to undertake the detailed engineering design and construction. The question of your authority undertaking part

erf the work for the department is a matter outside the board’s province, and should be discussed in the first instance with the district Commissioner of Works.” The director of planning '(Mr C. B. Millar) said the subsidy should cover the bulk of what the authority required done. At this stage, the authority wanted to produce something on paper so that the constituent councils could consider what land was involved in future planning for roads and reserve or set K aside. Reporting to the authority, Mr Bradshaw said support in principle for the proposal that the authority carry out the initial stages in the preparation of the master transportation plan had been given by constituent councils, and that seven of the eight councils had agreed to support the authority in the further development of the plan. The Christchurch City Council, Kaiapoi, and Ric-

carton borough councils, the Eyre, Halswell, Heathcote and Waimairi county councils had given their support. The Paparua County Council considered the plan should be developed no further than was essential to make it an operative scheme, said Mr Bradshaw. “The council also considers that the work shoud be financed within the maximum levy available to the authority under the act and that with this, a probable subsidy from the National Roads Board, and the transfer of some of the authority’s present staff to transport planning work, there should be no undue delay in completion of the plan.”