Summit Road Draft Bill Approved By Authority

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30151, 7 June 1963, Page 13

Summit Road Draft Bill Approved By Authority

A draft bill ’ for the preservation of the Summit road was yesterday approved in its entirety by the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority after it had agreed to amend the compensation clause. This clause was reworded to make it clear that the authority will not be liable for payment of compensation if it refuses to allow a landowner to carry out a proposal which contravenes an existing law, bylaw, or planning scheme. Before the draft can be submitted to the Parliamentary Local Bills Committee the provisions will be advertised for three weeks, and will then.be deposited for inspection for three weeks in Magistrate’s Courts in areas concerned.

Mr N. E. Kirk, M.P., in whose electorate the road runs, will be invited to sponsor the bill. This measure was a commendable move to preserve a natural heritage, said Mr T. D. Flint. The support it had received from many councils and boroughs showed that men were still aware of their responsibility -to future generations. The chairman (Mr E. J. Bradshaw) said that the meeting was the culmination of four yeats of concerted effort by numerous local bodies. Thirteen councils and boroughs had approved the project.

In these four years, Mr Bradshaw said, 10 major points had been extensively examined and amended. The original part of the road to be protected—from the Sign of the Kiwi to Coopers Khob —were extended to Evans Pass and Gebbies Pass; the

boundaries were fixed at the skyline as seen from the city and at 100 ft down from the road; the •authority was made the controlling body; it was made clear that the authority had no power to take land compulsorily; structures to be forbidden within the protected area were defined to exclude such things as fences, haystacks, and gates; the authority was given control over the planting of trees; the Crown was to be subject to provisions made by the authority; Springs county, since amalgamated, was withdrawn from the scheme; and the Wairewa county was included. ”

These points were decided at previous meetings, the only ’ other one being the clarification of the compensation clause.