TRAFFIC PLAN Lack Of Interest In Detail Disappointing

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30820, 4 August 1965, Page 12

TRAFFIC PLAN Lack Of Interest In Detail Disappointing

It was disappointing that only eight members of the City Council had attended a meeting arranged to explain the work on the master transport plan and the report on central traffic district parking and access in

1980, said Mr E. J. Bradshaw, the chairman, during his report to the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority yesterday. The council was the body which would have to face the major traffic problems, he said. The authority was now working on the plan in detail, and was apt to be criticised by councils that it was working behind their backs. He agreed with Mr R. C. Neville that the reports to the authority were tending to become

“anaemic,” but when the planning was detailed there was not a great deal to report. Most city councillors appreciated what was being done, said Mr G. D. Griffiths. The meeting was arranged on a day when all could attend, including councillors who would be out of Christchurch tor the rest of the week, but they did not attend either. “Rubber Stamp” A complaint that the authority was “getting down to a rubber stamp” was made by Mr Neville. “We consider nothing and do nothing,” he said.

He had been a member of the authority for many years and had grown to appreciate the work of the authority, but also to realise that he came to meetings for very little purpose, Mr Neville said. In particular, he referred to a report that proposals for the northern motorway route had been explained to the Christchurch Technical Institute when the authority itself had not been told the proposals.

The Director of Planning (Mr C. B. Millar) said the institute had been told of the progress of the work on the proposals, and given only information that had been before the authority. Professor C. Buchanan, who was coming to Christchurch to advise on the plan, should be given all the information possible, said Mr H. E. Denton after Mr J, U. Barclay had said it might be better to bring him out with an open mind.

“He should be given the feeling of the City Council and the other local bodies affected and acquainted with the other groups of people who have made a study of the plan," Cr. Denton said. “We cannot just bring him out, say there are the hills, there are the mountains and there’s Paparua, now go ahead.” The executive reported that a list of reports relating to the plan had been submitted to Professor Buchanan, who had asked for six of them. These were being sent to him. Motorway Routes

The authority was told that alignment for the motorway routes was being proceeded with by the authority’s staff, and when the alignment was proven this would assist the District Commissioner of Works (Mr D. B. Dallas) to submit proposals for provisional envelopes on corridors to the National Roads Board. Mr Dallas had asked for the assistance of the City Council in protecting the motorway routes from prejudicial building development.