FERRY ROAD ZONING

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 22

FERRY ROAD ZONING

Argument On Bakery Smiths Nutty Crust Bakery, Ltd., applied to the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board recently to be allowed to extend its premises in Ferry road on land zoned as residential A. The City Council, represented by Mr W. R. Lascelles, supported the application for a departure from its district planning scheme. The objector was the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority, for which Mr J. N. Matson appeared. For the company, Mr G. T. Mahon said the family bakery business had been on the site for 60 years. If it was unable to extend there was a real danger of the bakery going out of business or being taken over by a larger competitor. Neither would be in the public interest, he submitted. While there was heavy traffic in Ferry road at peak hours, there was very little at the times when the bakery vans used it for access between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., said Mr D. J. D. Smith, managing director of the company. Unless the application was granted the company would have to carry on on its existing land, which meant cramped quarters for staff, inconvenience, and no chance of expanding business. Fewer Bakeries

Mr L. G. Mercer, secretary of the New Zealand Association of Bakeries, said there had been a continual reduction in the number of bakeries. If those remaining were to continue to give the public a choice of bread they must expand, if only to keep up with an increaseting population.

Granting of the application would make almost an infiinitesimal intrusion on traffic problems, Mr Lascelles said. A departure as sought by the company would not, in the council’s view, react against the designation of Ferry road as a major traffic route. The council took the view that this was a case where there should not be complete rigidity of planning. The planning authority objected to the departure on general grounds rather than specific grounds, Mr Matson said. The applicant had to show that it was in the public interest to have a change, and he submitted that had not been done.

The whole plan was due to come up for review next year, and that would be the appropriate time for an application for a change, Mr Matson said. The board found that in the public interest the appeal should be allowed with conditions that the board would give in its written decision.