DRAINAGE OF SWAMP

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 12

DRAINAGE OF SWAMP

Proposals By Contractors Proposals to fill in the Travis Swamp at Burwood were made by Ryan Brothers Contractors, Ltd, when the company asked a town-plan-ning sub-committee of the Christchurch City Council yesterday for a specified departure to let it establish a contractors’ yard at the corner of Travis Road and Barkers Road.

The firm’s manager, Mr K. N. Hally, said the business, started 50 years ago, was working from a yard off Travis Road, and had outgrown it.

The eight acres now wanted for a yard was low-lying, known as the Travis Swamp, and an eyesore. If the application were granted, the company would fill the area with an estimated 140,000 yards of material and landscape it.

Much of the land bounded by Travis Road, Bassett Street, New Brighton Road and Barkers Road had been zoned rural because it was no use for any other purpose, said Mr Hally. There had been no effort to build homes because the cost of filling would make residential subdivision uneconomic. The company, by virtue of its work, could do the extensive filling at lower cost.

Far from detracting from amenities, the company’s plan would considerably up grade the land. If the company’s application was refused it was unlikely that any other improvements would be made for many years.

The Regional Planning Authority opposed the application, saying that to allow it would be to promote close settlement of a rural zone and would create an undesirable isolated industrial zone. Decision was reserved.