Wellington Council Stops Airport Work

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31754, 10 August 1968, Page 14

Wellington Council Stops Airport Work

(N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Aug. 9. All airport works and planning by the Wellington City Council will stop immediately. The work will not be started again until the Government has made "an unambiguous statement” on the development of the Wellington regional airport complex. This was decided at a meeting of the Wellington City Council today which considered a statement on Wellington airport from the Minister of Aviation (Mr Gordon) yesterday. The chairman of the airport committee (Mr S. H. J. Duff) said the Minister’s statement so confused the position on the Wellington region that he recommended the council stop all airport works and planning immediately. He recommended that no more action be taken until the Government made an unambiguous statement on the Wellington regional airport complex. His recommendations were approved. Mr Duff said no steps could be taken on the extended construction of Rongotai as an internal airport until the Government made a final decision on Rongotai as a Tasman link. "On Shoulders” The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr Gordon) said tonight that if the council's action covered the planned development of the domestic

terminal at Rongotai “then it is tantamount to some form of threat.”

“Any delay or lack of facilities for New Zealanders at Rongotai will thus rest squarely on the shoulders of the airport authority,” the Minister said. “The statement I issued on Thursday night was a Government decision made primarily in the interests of proper planning for Wellington as well as in the national interest.

“Last week Cr Duff challenged me over the safety angle at Rongotai. My release of the Gilkinson report answers this and I now challenge Cr Duff to produce the contradictory statements he alleges I have made,” said Mr Gordon. Mud Money A strike of 12 labourers working on the site of the new public library in Auckland has been settled by the payment of mud money. The men will receive 6e an hour extra while the site remains muddy.